


Sparks in the Ashes

by WinterMoonlight



Category: D.Gray-man, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Manga-based with elements from the anime, Non-Canon Relationship, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2019-11-04 04:10:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 73,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17891237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinterMoonlight/pseuds/WinterMoonlight
Summary: Harry Potter, stuck a century in the past gets reluctantly drawn into a deadly war. As powerful bonds of family and friendship are formed, Harry and his friends and allies, old and new, uncover truths that will either bring about the world’s salvation, or damnation.





	1. A Century in the Past

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone. This is my first story on Archive of Our Own.
> 
> It's a Harry Potter/D.Gray-man crossover that I have been working on, off and on, for the past three years and I have decided to finally share it with you.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or D.Gray-man and I am only saying this once so I will not repeat it in later chapters.

 

**Arc 1**

**The Black Order**

**. . .**

**1**

**A Century in the Past**

Allen Walker studied the three burly men seated in front of him, keeping his expression neutral while a sweet, innocent smile played on his lips. In his hands, one pale and unadorned and the other covered in a long, white glove, were five cards. The burly men were grinning at him with smugness radiating off their entire being; piles of guineas rested on the table next to them. All that money, along with all of the clothes on the men’s back, would be his if he won the hand. That was the bet. That was what the burly men agreed upon.

That was the bet that Allen was going to win no matter what.

“Two cards,” he said, removing two cards from his hand and placing them on the ground before reaching over to the deck, casually and subtly slipping two cards from his sleeve into his hand before adding them to his hand. To anyone who was watching, or the players that sat across from him, he had just drawn cards like a regular player.

“I fold,” one of the burly men said, throwing his cards down with a huff.

“Bad hand, Vince,” the second man said in amusement. “This kid ain’t got nothing. I’m gonna stand.”

“I’ll stand too,” the third man said firmly and held up the hands. “Call. Four of a kind.” He laid the hand out with a broad grin on his face.

“Ha, beat ya,” the second man said with a laugh as he laid his hand down to reveal a Straight Flush. “Looks like I win, kid. Now you’re gonna pay your Master’s debts to us now.”

“But I haven’t shown my hand yet,” the fourteen-year-old boy with the unruly white hair hidden by a hat said innocently even as he smirked inwardly as he fixed silver-gray eyes on his hand.

“Fine, fine, what do ya got kid?” the second man said with a huff, clearly not thinking that Allen had anything that would work.

Allen smiled a sweetly innocent smile as he laid his hand down. “Royal Straight Flush,” he said.

There was a moment of silence as the three burly men stared at the cards that lay on the table as if they couldn’t believe their eyes. “W...What?” they exclaimed at the exact same time, shock causing their bodies to freeze and their eyes to go wide.

“It looks like I win,” Allen commented casually.

“Y...You...but that...how?” Vince stammered out.

Allen shrugged as he gathered the cards together and began shuffling them. “I won the hand. Are you going to pay or should we go another hand?” he asked as he shuffled.

Five minutes later, Allen was leaving the lobby of the inn with his winnings in his hands, having decided to be nice and let the debt collectors keep their clothes. He counted the guineas as he walked, pressing his lips together. “Well, at least I got a couple of Master’s debts taken care of and I did win a bit more than I thought I did,” he mused as he stuffed the money away while walking, his hands tucking into the pocket of his jacket.

He wondered if he would be able to stash away some of the money he’d won before his Master noticed. He was sure that his Master would just spend it all on alcohol or a nearby brothel, as he usually did, and Allen would like to have a little of his own spending money. He sighed as he tilted his head to gaze up at the sky.

A few years had gone by since Allen had started training with his Innocence and his Master, General Cross Marian, and there really hadn’t been much training involved. Most of the time, Allen was busy handling all of his Master’s debts or running from debt collectors or getting thrown into the middle of a street where akumas were roaming the area. That last thing didn’t really look like normal training but his Master felt that he would learn better if he was forced to do so in order to save his life, hence the throwing Allen at the akuma and hoping he didn’t get himself killed plan.

Even so, there was no denying that when Cross Marian decided to fight against the akuma himself, which only happened a handful of times since Allen had met the man, he was a powerful fighter. It just so happened that he preferred spending most of his time, instead, with women or drinking or racking up debts and then leaving Allen to deal with paying those debts back.

At least Allen had learned some things, not only about how to fight akuma and about the curse around his left eye that allowed him to see the imprisoned soul of the akuma, but also on just how bad the war was, just how much of an advantage the Millennium Earl had. There was just too much loss and too many who desired to bring their loved ones whom they had lost to death back, even if only to see them one more time.

Allen shivered as he recalled when he had been like that, when he was ten-years-old, and that had been what led to him getting cursed. As the memory came back into his mind, Allen was more than a little grateful by the sudden explosion of white light that emerged from a nearby alley since it immediately jolted him out of that memory before he could go into it.

He turned and darted toward and into the alley, scanning the area but his eye wasn’t activating so he figured that there wasn’t an akuma around. He edged his way forward anyway just in case they were hiding; he normally didn’t see the soul of the akuma unless he could see the human form that the akuma had taken.

He spotted the boy, thankfully before he tripped over him. He was laying on the ground, eyes closed, glasses resting nearby, and Allen could make out a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. He was dressed in a thin long-sleeved brown jacket over a red shirt and black jeans that was covered in tears and grime. The boy looked around Allen’s age and didn’t seem responsive and, while Allen really had no idea how he got there, he wasn’t about to let him just remain there.

Kneeling down beside the boy, he shook his shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?” he called.

The boy stirred and bright green eyes fluttered open. He lifted his head and jerked back, looking around widely and Allen noticed that he was clutching a stick in his hand. “W...Who are you?” he demanded, pointing the stick at Allen.

Allen blinked but just held up his hands to show that he wasn’t armed. While his Master may call him an idiot all the time, Allen wasn’t that stupid and knew, just by the way that the boy was holding that stick, that he likely thought he could use it as a weapon. And considering he could stab someone’s eye out with a stick, Allen thought it best to play on the safe side.

“Hey, it’s okay. I don’t mean you any harm. I just found you here and wanted to make sure you were okay. I’m Allen, by the way, Allen Walker,” he said, holding out a hand.

The boy eyed him with distrust but lowered the stick and stuck out his other hand. “Harry Potter,” he said as he took the white-haired boy’s hand and shook it.

“Nice to meet you. Are you hurt anywhere?” Allen asked, releasing the boy’s hand and standing up, briefly noticing the surprised look on Harry’s face but deciding against asking about it. Instead, he just held out a hand to Harry who hesitated for a moment before taking it and, after picking up his glasses and putting them on, pulling himself to his feet.

“I don’t think so,” he said after he flexed his arms to see if they were hurt.

“That’s good,” Allen said relieved.

The sound of a cane tapping on the cobblestone road echoed behind them and Allen turned with a frown as an elderly woman came to a stop at the mouth of the alley, illuminated by a shaft of sunlight. He stiffened, the scar on his left eye glowing as his left eye went black with two concentric rings of red rotating around its center. He lifted his head, narrowing his eyes as he gazed at the soul of a long-haired woman that was hovering above the old woman, tears of agony in her eyes.

“Little boys like you shouldn’t be out this late,” the elderly woman said. “Best be getting home.”

“Harry, stay here,” Allen said and moved forward before a confused Harry could protest. He came to a stop in front of the elderly woman and gave her a soft, sad smile. “You poor akuma.”

“An akuma?” The old woman laughed. “You sure have a wild imagination. I am no demon or nothing like that.” The soul above her head cried out incoherent pleas for freedom from her imprisonment.

Allen shook his head, removing his white glove and stuffing it into his pocket as he revealed the scaly red arm with the glowing green cross implanted on the back of the hand. “There is no use in lying to me because I can see you,” he said.

The elderly woman took a step back, narrowing her eyes, the cane falling from her hands before she suddenly split in half, earning a cry of shock from Harry. A giant white balloon-like creature with gun barrels jutting out of its body and a white mask crying black tears emerged from the skin of the woman it had been hiding itself as.

“Innocence activate” Allen said. The green cross glowed before the green glow enveloped his entire arm, forming spikes of green energy around his shoulder as the red arm morphed into a long, wide silver arm with thick, sharp claws in place of fingers.

“What the bloody hell is that?” Harry shouted.

Just then, the akuma unleashed a torrent of bullets that shot like streaks of purple flares into the narrow alleyway. Allen darted back, tackling Harry to the ground and rolling both of them behind a dumpster. The bullets streaked overhead but, thankfully, none of them penetrated the dumpster that the two teenagers were hiding behind.

“Stay here and keep your head down. Those bullets contain akuma poison. If it so much as touches you, it’ll infect you and kill you within seconds. Just stay out of sight. It’ll focus on me so you should be fine,” Allen said and lifted his head as the torrent of bullets stopped, noticing the akuma was rising high into the air, probably thinking to attack from above.

“W...What the hell is that? And what’s up with your arm? Who are you?” Harry exclaimed, looking shocked.

“I promise I’ll explain everything later,” Allen reassured him, not taking his gaze off the akuma. He had to stop it before it got too high because the alleyway was too narrow for either of them to dodge the bullets and, while Allen knew that he was immune to akuma poison, Harry was just a regular human and would be killed.

“Stay here,” Allen said again and, hoping that the other boy would listen to him, leaped onto the dumpster then across to grab the railing to the balcony across from the dumpster. He swung himself onto the railing and jumped again onto the roof of the building he and Harry had been hiding against. He then darted to the corner of the building as the akuma continued to rise.

“Over here,” he called.

The akuma turned around, fixing that sad mask on him before it turned the barrels of its guns toward him. Allen jumped onto the ledge of the building. “May you soul be saved, you poor akuma,” he murmured since he really did pity akumas. They were forced to become the way that they were, and forced to attack and kill, because of the Millennium Earl. As he jumped off the building, he slashed his silver clawed arm downward; the claws sliced through the balloon-like body of the akuma and Allen landed lightly on the ground as the akuma exploded overhead. The soul that had been attached to it fell in wisps of mist.

“Rest in peace,” he said quietly to the soul.

A soft “ _thank you_ ” from the soul sounded as it dissipated in front of him.

Releasing a short breath, Allen deactivated his Innocence as his eye deactivated before turning around and hurrying to rejoin the black-haired boy. “Are you okay?” he asked, kneeling by Harry and scanning his body, relieved to not see the pentacles that indicated akuma poisoning.

“Yeah, I’m fine. What was that?” Harry asked.

Allen looked up, frowning at the clouds that had rolled in during his fight with the akuma, thick storm clouds pregnant with rain. “Let’s get back to the inn where my master and I are staying. It’s going to rain soon and this is probably going to be a long conversation,” he said. As if his words had called it up, a light rain began to fall from the overcast sky.

Harry brushed a few strands of black hair out of his face, studying Allen for a moment as if determining whether to trust him or not. Finally, he nodded. “Okay,” he said. “But you will answer all of my questions, right?”

“As much as I can,” Allen said.

“All right, deal.”

**. . .**

Hermione Granger woke up cold. Lifting her head and shivering, she gazed around to find that she was lying in a snowdrift with a thick blanket of snow covering her sodden body. Her arms and face were numb from the cold and her normally bushy brown hair was flattened against her face and neck. Goosebumps littered her arms and she couldn’t feel her fingers that well.

Shivering as she pushed herself to her knees, she gazed around while attempting to figure out how long she had been unconscious, where she was, and what happened to her wand. The last thing she remembered was being thrown into the misty blackness beyond the veil along with Ron, Sirius, and Harry.

_Wait, where are they?_ She thought, forcing herself to her feet and gazing around, grateful that she wasn’t too frozen to move, and looking for anything to indicate just where her friends and Sirius were. She didn’t see anything in the thick blanket of snow that covered the park that she’d ended up in and only saw a few people, wrapped up in thick coats with scarves around their necks and gloves on their hands, walking across the snowy landscape.

Trees devoid of leaves dotted the park, benches covered in snow rested at precise intervals, and a frozen pond dominated the heart of the park. There was a small island at the pond’s center on top of which was a stone fountain sprouting a spray of water directly into the air, water that did not come back down but nor did it keep rising into the snow-white sky above.

“Are you okay?” A soft voice asked tentatively in English and Hermione turned to find a girl that looked a few years older than her with long blonde hair and concern in her leaf-green eyes. She was dressed in a thick light-gray jacket with her gloved hands stuffed deep into the jacket’s pockets.

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine,” Hermione said and shivered as an icy breeze surged through the park, whipping a few strands of wet hair into her eyes.

“You’re freezing! Come on. You can come to my place to warm up,” the girl said and turned around, gesturing for her to follow with a gloved hand.

Hermione hesitated but, as another icy breeze slapped her cheeks, she decided that she really didn’t have any choice if she didn’t want to freeze. She wasn’t dressed for winter weather, since it was spring when she and her friends had entered the Ministry of Magic, and knew that she was at risk for frostbite and hypothermia if she didn’t get warmed up.

She nodded slowly and followed the girl as she jogged down the snow-covered street and past buildings topped with snow with icicles hanging from the buildings’ awnings. Footprints showed that the road they were on had much traffic but there weren’t any cars on the street or snow plows to drive away the snow. Hermione didn’t even see any people shoveling snow out of the road to make it easier for traffic to get through but, then, there didn’t seem to be any traffic period.

“You really shouldn’t be out in this kind of weather in just that. Are you new here?” the girl asked, turning around to walk backwards along the snowy road.

“Um, yeah,” Hermione said, deciding to just play that card. “I’m a tourist but I wasn’t expecting the snow.”

The girl hummed and turned around. “It’s strange,” she admitted as they continued walking down the road. “It’s been like this for the past three months and no one knows why but we’ve just made the most of it. This is a little village that few people know about and we haven’t had many tourists in the past.”

“Oh, well, I just decided...to...you know...explore the lesser known places in the world,” Hermione said quickly once she realized her blunder while looking around. She wasn’t even sure where she was but she did see snow-capped mountains rising up around the village on almost all sides.

“Wow. I’ve always wanted to explore the world but never really had the chance ‘cause it’s so time-consuming and my family doesn’t make nearly enough money to leave this village,” the girl said with a bright smile. “I bet you’ve seen so many different places with your parents. Speaking of that, where are they?”

“They’re back at the hotel. I can call them when we get to your place,” Hermione lied, surprising herself with how easily the lie had escaped her lips; granted, she wasn’t talking to an adult but it wasn’t as if she could tell the girl the truth. That she had, quite literally, appeared out of nowhere in a snow-covered park with no idea how she got there.

“I can ask Mama but we only have one and it’s normally used for work,” the girl said. She paused then added, “Oh, I’m sorry. I haven’t even introduced myself yet! How rude of me. I’m Ariadne Alanis. And you are?”

_Ariadne. That sounds Greek to me,_ Hermione thought and, realizing exactly what she had just thought, mused that Harry and Ron would probably get a kick out of the irony of that statement. “I’m Hermione Granger,” she said.

“I like that name,” Ariadne said with a smile. “It’s pretty. Named after Helen of Troy’s daughter, huh?”

“Um, maybe. I’m not sure really,” Hermione admitted. She knew that she did share her name with the daughter of Helen of Troy but didn’t know if that was her parents’ intention or not.

“Oh. I know I’m named after the mythical Ariadne from our mythology,” Ariadne admitted.

_Our. So she’s Greek. If that’s true then does that mean I, somehow, ended up in Greece? Or did I just happen to run into someone who was Greek?_ Hermione thought and quickly thought about how to find out for sure just where she was. She couldn’t ask Ariadne directly where she was because she’d already made it seem as if she was in that village on purpose.

“Is there any other places near here that would be interesting to visit?” Hermione asked.

Ariadne hummed as she came to a stop in front of a door leading into a shop with several pairs of shoes on display in the windows. “Well, there’s Trikala and Athens but the trains haven’t been running here since three months ago when this weird weather hit so I dunno how you’d get there. Maybe by carriage. Come on inside.”

She led the way into the shoe shop and Hermione, having confirmed that she was in Greece, followed her, her thoughts mostly on what Ariadne had said. The use of trains wasn’t that big of a surprise, since trains were used in England all the time, but the mention of carriages was what threw Hermione off. As far as she knew, carriages were no longer used in the world; she supposed that some towns and villages could use them but to use them for a journey to places like Athens?

_I suppose it’s possible if it’s the only way to get there since they don’t seem to have cars but that just brings up another question. Why don’t they have cars?_ She thought, her brain attempting to figure out the puzzle that she’d stumbled upon.

“Mama! I’m home,” Ariadne called and said something in Greek that Hermione couldn’t understand.

A tall woman who looked like an older version of Ariadne made her way into the front of the shop, wiping her hands on a rag. “Oh, hello,” she greeted Hermione in English. Hermione only just now noticed that their English was actually really good; she only detected small traces of an accent. “I’m Agatha, Ariadne’s mother. Please, come in, dear. You look frozen.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Hermione said politely and followed Agatha to the back room. Agatha told her to sit down on a worn-looking couch near the fireplace. Hermione frowned because the fireplace looked rather old-fashioned compared to the one’s she had in her own house. She looked around, scrutinizing the entire place but it seemed so out of place and old-fashioned, like the buildings outside now that she thought about it.

Agatha walked over to her and gently draped a thick blanket over her shoulders. “I’ll go make you some hot tea to help warm you up,” she said with a kind smile.

“Oh thank you,” Hermione said and the woman walked out of the room.

Ariadne removed her thick jacket and sat down across from her. Hermione studied her; she was dressed in an ankle-length pleated skirt and sailor blouse, which was odd since it was also old-fashioned like something out of the 1800s or something. At least, according to the pictures in the books she’s read. “So where do you come from, Hermione?” she asked.

“London,” Hermione replied.

“You’re from England? You’re a long way away from home,” Ariadne commented, leaning back. “And you dress funny.”

“I do?” Hermione looked down at her striped sweater and black jeans.

“Uh huh. Never seen clothes like that before, not even from other tourists,” Ariadne said.

Hermione chewed on her lower lip but didn’t know what to say in response to that. Ariadne’s words suggested that what Hermione was wearing wasn’t as common or else she wouldn’t think it was funny. _Just where am I?_ She thought. She knew that she was in Greece but the little things that she had noticed were starting to suggest that there was more to her location than just somewhere in Greece.

“Ariadne?” she asked.

“Hmm?” Ariadne glanced at her.

“Do you have a calendar? I’m just curious to see how many more days my parents and I are going to stay here,” Hermione said, the lie sliding out of her lips without much effort, just as it had before.

“Sure thing. Let me go get you it,” Ariadne said and got to her feet. She left the room and then came back in a few moments later with a calendar in her hands. She handed it to Hermione who took it before staring at the date that was on the calendar.

_March 189_ _6_ _._

_189_ _6_ _? What the…? I’m in the past,_ Hermione thought in shock. She hadn’t thought that she would travel through time when she fell through the Veil. Even though she knew that time travel was possible, her third year was proof of that, she didn’t think that it was possible to travel a century into the past.

_But what am I supposed to do now? And did Harry, Ron, and Sirius end up here? If so, where are they? I should look for them. They might’ve ended up in another area of the city,_ she thought as she, thanking Ariadne, handed her the calendar back.

She decided that she would warm herself up and, maybe, she could get a coat or something and start looking around for her friends and Sirius.

**. . .**

Ron Weasley hesitated as he gazed at the chess board in front of him, pressing his lips tightly together as he wondered just what move to make next. He scanned the board, looking for the moves that his opponent could make. Playing muggle chess was the same as playing Wizard’s Chess, just without the pieces talking and moving on their own and destroying the other pieces, and Ron was just as good at the muggle version as he was the wizarding version.

The only reason why he was playing chess was because he was trying to get out of the jam he’d unintentionally gotten himself into. When he’d woken up, after falling into the Veil in the Department of Mysteries, he’d been surrounded by darkness with only a few pockets of light in the area. As he was trying to find out where he was, and attempt to navigate his way around the darkness, he hadn’t been paying attention and ran into a chess match, knocking the entire expensive-looking board down. The participants had been furious since the board had cracked but one of the players said he’d forgive Ron if they played a match and Ron won; if he lost then he would have to pay the player a large sum of money that he just didn’t have in order to make amends.

Finally spotting the move that he could make that would help him win, he picked up the knight and moved it to take his opponent’s bishop. “Check,” he said.

His opponent frowned and moved the king to the right one spot.

Ron grinned. _Thought you’d do that,_ he thought as he moved his bishop to a space that would completely prevent the king from moving in anyway. “Checkmate,” he declared.

His opponent groaned. “Well, damn,” he muttered, tipping his white king over. “Fine. I’ll let what happened go. Just get outta here, kid.”

“Uh, right,” Ron said, standing up and heading away from the table, using the pockets of light to attempt to navigate the darkness.

He didn’t understand the town he’d ended up in. He’d been there for a few hours already and there didn’t seem to be any change in terms of the darkness; there was no sun, no moon, and no stars. And, in the last few hours, that hadn’t changed at all; it was as if someone had thrown some...what did Hermione call it? Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder?…over the entire town.

It was really weird.

Ron sighed and looked around. He didn’t know what time it was; the only thing he knew was that there weren’t very many people outside, other than the people he’d played chess with. He supposed he should find some place to stay the night; contrary to common, i.e. Slytherin, belief, he wasn’t stupid and knew that being outside in the dark wasn’t a good idea.

Unfortunately, he also knew that inns cost money and he didn’t have any muggle money on him nor did he have much wizarding money on him.

“Hey, Mr.,” a voice called out and Ron jumped before turning to find two people, one of which was holding a lantern in his hands while the other was holding a bag of groceries, walking toward him.

“It’s not safe to be outside,” the taller of the two said.

“Um, who are you?” Ron asked.

“My name’s Alvin and this is my son Quinton,” the tall man said. “You’re new here, aren’t you? We don’t get any tourists since the darkness descended three months ago and you’re the second one we’ve come across but maybe you know the first. He said that he was looking for some people.”

“Um, maybe? Who is this guy?” Ron asked suspiciously. His mother had raised him to never trust strangers but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t ask some questions himself.

“His name’s Sirius.”

“Sirius? Sirius Black?” Ron asked hopefully.

“Yeah, that’s his last name. He’s staying with us for the time being. You know him?”

Even if Sirius was, technically speaking, still a fugitive, it didn’t seem as if Alvin knew that. Ron decided that if Sirius agreed to stay with these people then he might as well too. “Yeah, I do. He’s my best friend’s godfather,” Ron said. “So where is he?”

“We were just heading home after getting food at the market when we ran into you so you can just come with us,” Alvin said, walking past Ron and toward the door to a house nearby. He unlocked it and pushed it open. “Sirius, we found one of your companions.”

“Really? Which one?” Ron relaxed when he heard Sirius’s familiar voice and, a moment later, the haggard-looking black-haired form of Sirius Black appeared in the doorway.

“Hey Sirius,” Ron said.

“Ron, glad you’re all right. Have you seen Harry and Hermione?” Sirius asked.

“I can’t see a bloody thing in this darkness,” Ron grumbled.

“Tell me about it,” Sirius muttered and Ron could see worry in his eyes but it cleared as he turned to Alvin and Quinton, the latter of whom slipped into the house with the groceries. “Thanks for looking for ‘em, Alvin.”

“No problem. I like to help,” Alvin said as Ron made his way into the house.

“Ron, can I talk to ya?” Sirius asked.

“Okay?” Ron followed Sirius as he led the way toward the other end of the living room that they were in. Alvin and Quinton seemed to realize that they wanted some privacy because they didn’t say anything and both of them disappeared into the kitchen.

“What’s up?” Ron asked.

“We’re in big trouble,” Sirius murmured. “I cast a spell to see just how long I’d been out and to find out where I am and, well, we’re in France but that’s not the bad news. _Accio calendar!_ ” A moment later, a calendar that was resting on the coffee table flew into his hand and he held it out to Ron. Ron took it and, while he couldn’t read French, he was easily able to read the year.

“We’re in 1896? How?” he said stunned. Hermione had time traveled in their third year but Ron vaguely remembered Hermione telling him that one couldn’t travel more than a few hours into the past without risking the present or the future.

“I don’t know. Must’ve had something to do with what happened when we all fell through the Veil and I dunno how to get back to our own time. Messing with time magic ain’t something that’s advised to do,” Sirius said grimly. “So, yeah, I think we’re stuck in this time for the time being.”

“That’s not good.” Ron pressed his lips together in worry. “Do you think ‘Mione and Harry ended up in this time too?”

“I think it’s likely.” There was no hiding the worry in Sirius’s eyes. “I hope Remus and everyone in the Department of Mysteries is all right too.”

“Yeah.”

“Dinner’s ready. Sirius! You and your young friend are welcomed to join us,” Alvin called from the kitchen.

Ron’s eyes lit up at the mention of food.

“Thank you, Alvin,” Sirius called and the two of them headed into the kitchen.

**. . .**

Harry Potter trailed after the white-haired boy as he led the way down the street, the silver-clawed arm that he’d used earlier was gone but he’d replaced the glove he’d been wearing before Harry could get a good look at his arm. It made him wonder why the boy Allen was hiding it but he decided against asking, at least right now. He had far too many questions as it was; where was he? What was that balloon-like creature? Those two were on the forefront of his mind.

“Hopefully my master won’t be home yet. I don’t think he’d react too well to finding you here,” Allen admitted as they neared an inn that looked a little similar to the _Leaky Cauldron._ He walked inside, giving the innkeeper a polite greeting and leading the way down the hallway.

“Master?” Harry echoed, frowning as he followed after Allen. As far as he knew, only servants, like house elves, called who they serve master. Was Allen a servant then? But Harry was pretty sure servants only worked for the rich, or were house elves, and he was also pretty sure that their masters wouldn’t be staying at an inn quite like the one they were walking in.

They reached a room and Allen unlocked it and led the way into a musty room in which there were two cots, discarded empty bottles of alcohol littering the floor, and papers scattered on a desk by the window.

Allen navigated his way around the bottles and walked over to the window. He opened it and a golden thing that looked like a Snitch, but was slightly larger, flew into the room.

“Thanks for staying outside, Tim. I probably wouldn’t have been able to find my way back had it not been for you,” Allen said.

The golden thing, Tim apparently, replied by nuzzling Allen’s snow-white hair before it settled down on Allen’s head, its tail curling around Allen’s ear. Allen chuckled before turning to face Harry. “All right, I’ll answer what questions you have. Please, take a seat,” he said, gesturing to the bed as he pulled out the chair by the desk and sat down.

Harry sat down on the bed. “Where am I?” he asked.

“Somewhere in Africa. I’m not entirely sure where. We came into this town in the dead of night and I haven’t had the chance to find someone to tell me the name of it yet,” Allen replied.

_Africa? That’s a long way from home,_ Harry thought but went on to his next question since he doubted that the white-haired boy knew of how Harry had gotten to Africa. He, himself, was still trying to wrap his mind around that; the last thing he remembered was falling through the Veil while trying to save his godfather. On that note, he also didn’t even know where his godfather and his two friends, Hermione and Ron, had ended up since they’d fallen through the Veil with him. “What was that balloon-like creature thing that attacked us?” he asked.

“An akuma,” Allen said grimly. “They are machines created by the Millennium Earl through use of the souls of the departed.”

Harry shivered because he didn’t like the sound of that. He was pretty sure messing around with someone’s soul was considered dark magic. But another question arose in his mind at the mention of the person who created these creatures. He’d never heard of that person before. “Who’s the Millennium Earl?”

“Well, that’s gonna take a bit more explaining,” Allen said with a faint smile. “I’ll explain what I do know but there are some things that I don’t know and, unfortunately, I only know so much about the Millennium Earl. He’s the creator of akumas and the one that controls them. He appears when someone has just lost someone they loved and offers them the chance to bring their loved one back to life. However, when their soul is brought back, it is bound to a metal frame and becomes bound to the Millennium Earl, forced to serve him for eternity, or until it is destroyed.”

Harry shivered at that. That wasn’t something he would wish on anyone. When someone died, he personally thought that they deserved the right to rest in peace. His thoughts drifted to Cedric and he wondered if Cedric’s father would have brought him back had he been given the chance. Thinking about Cedric brought with it the memory of when he last saw him, the flash of sickly green light, the lifeless eyes staring up at the sky…

He viciously shoved the thought out of his mind. “You seem to know a lot about akuma,” he commented, forcing himself to think about something else.

A small sad smile crossed Allen’s face. “Yeah,” he said but said nothing more.

Harry decided not to push it since he could hear the pain in the white-haired boy’s voice. “What was that silver arm of yours?” he said, deciding to go to that question to get his mind off akumas, souls, and the memory of the kind seventh year Hufflepuff he’d tried, and failed, to save. Even after almost a year since the death had occurred, it still haunted Harry. Granted, not as much as it had in the initial first few weeks afterward but the grief and the guilt was still there.

“This?” Allen held up his left arm. “It’s my Innocence. Innocence is the only substance in the world that can fight against and destroy akuma and it takes on several different forms. I was born with mine. It’s my entire left arm.”

“Innocence?”

“I don’t know the whole story unfortunately,” Allen admitted apologetically. “Master never got around to actually telling me the whole story.” His voice held a mixture of frustration and resignation as if he wasn’t surprised by that.

“So who is your Master anyway? And I thought only servants had masters,” Harry said puzzled.

“Oh, it’s not that kind of master,” Allen said, leaning back against his seat. “Like I already told you, Innocence is the only thing that can destroy an akuma so those who can use Innocence are trained to become Exorcists within an organization called the Black Order and fight akumas. Sometimes, generals of the Order take on apprentices and train them to be Exorcists. My master is one of those Generals.”

“Oh. So you’re an apprentice,” Harry said and found himself wondering why he hadn’t thought of that earlier. Hermione had told him, while they were discussing possible career choices at the end of their second year, that some masters in specific fields took on apprentices after they graduated. Thinking about Hermione reminded him that he still didn’t know where she, or Ron and Sirius, were.

“Yeah,” Allen said sullenly.

The door suddenly slammed open and a tall man with long red hair, a goatee, and a white mask covering half his face strode into the room, taking a long drink out of a long wine bottle in one hand and with a glowing green cube-like item in his other hand. He was dressed in a gold accented black clothing with a large hat on top of his head.

“Yo, Idiot Apprentice,” he greeted Allen.

“Master,” Allen replied politely, standing up and inclining his head in greeting.

The man snorted and then spotted Harry and narrowed his visible red eye. “Why’s there another brat here, Idiot Apprentice?” he said.

Harry bristled a little at being called a brat but held his tongue.

“There was an akuma attack and he saw me use my Innocence so I told him that I’d explain everything to him, Master,” Allen replied.

“Everything? You really are an idiot, brat. Why the hell would you think explaining everything to him would be a good idea? And why the hell is this thing pulsating?” the general said, glaring at the glowing green cube that was pulsating in his hand.

“He deserved some answers,” Allen said hotly in defense.

“Tch. Whatever. That still don’t explain why he’s _here_. Hn. Whatever. I really don’t care,” the man said, tossing the cube up and down in his hands.

“Is that Innocence?” Allen said in surprise.

“What? Of course it is, Idiot Apprentice, or did you suddenly become blind? It was what we came here for,” the man said.

Allen blinked “But that means...you actually did your job?” he said in bewilderment as if he couldn’t fathom that his master had actually done something he was supposed to do. Based on Allen’s words, it was almost as if his master doing his job wasn’t a common occurrence.

“Tch. You, brat, are you gonna stay sitting there gaping like a stupid fish or are ya gonna leave? ‘Cause I already have one brat to deal with. I’m not gonna deal with another,” the man said bluntly, glaring at Harry.

“Who the bloody hell are you anyway? And I still have questions,” Harry retorted hotly.

“He has more fire than you do, Idiot Apprentice,” the man said. “The name’s Cross, this idiot’s master, and you, brat, are better off not knowing anything more than what the idiot’s already told you.”

Allen glared at his master who smirked back at him and then turned to glare at the pulsating cube of Innocence in his hand. “Oh just go then,” he grumbled and to, Harry’s surprise, the Innocence flew on its own out of Cross’s hand and shot toward him.

His wand was in his hand in an instant but, before he could utter a shield charm, the green cube made contact with his wand. A bright flash of green light enveloped it and Harry, shielding his eyes with one hand, blinked a little as his eyes adjusted and the light faded. He looked down and was surprised to see that, on the handle of the wand, was a glowing green cross embedded directly into the wood.

“What?” he said in puzzlement.

“It looks like you’re an Accomodator, Harry,” Allen said.

“It chose a stick as your weapon? Ha,” Cross snorted and flopped into the chair that Allen had been sitting in moments before.

“It’s a wand,” Harry said flatly.

That just caused Cross to start laughing. “What are you? A Merlin wannabee or something?” he said.

Harry frowned. He detected the undercurrent of amusement in the General’s voice and realized that he was being mocked. Muggles did know about Merlin, due to the stories that were written about the Arthurian legends, but no one knew that Merlin actually existed. This guy clearly didn’t but nor did this guy, or Allen, know about witches or wizards. It made him wonder if he’d done the right thing of actually saying that he had a wand out loud. Then again it was clear that they, or at least Cross, didn’t believe him so he figured there was no harm done.

But that left another question. “Wait, what do you mean I’m an Accomodator?” he said.

“You remember how I told you that Innocence is the only thing that can destroy akuma?” Allen asked and, when Harry nodded, he added, “And how I told you that my left arm was Innocence?”

Harry nodded again.

“Innocence chooses who it wants to wield it. These people are called Accomodators and are trained to use their Innocence and become Exorcists,” Allen explained.

Harry frowned because, based on Allen’s words, it didn’t seem as if these _Accomodators_ had a choice. “Don’t they get a choice?” he said.

Allen shook his head, giving him an apologetic smile.

“But I don’t want to fight those akuma things. I just want to find my friends and my godfather and go home,” Harry objected.

“Your friends and godfather?” Allen repeated.

Harry looked away. He hadn’t meant to say that out loud, since he didn’t exactly trust these people and he was still trying to wrap his mind around everything that he’d learned, but he couldn’t exactly take it back now. They didn’t need to know the truth so he just told them the bare minimum of what happened.

“My friends, my godfather, and I got into a bit of a fight and we got separated and I have no idea where they are,” he admitted and decided against saying that he had no idea how he got to Africa to begin with.

“That’s not my problem,” Cross said dismissively. “Whether you like it or not, you’re an Accomodator for Innocence and akuma are gonna be naturally attracted to you because of that. They’re gonna attack you and will try and kill ya. So either you get training or you get killed.”

Just then a scream sounded outside and Allen turned toward the window but not before Harry saw his eye glow and turn black with two concentric red rings rotating around the pupil. “Master, there are at least ten akuma outside,” he said.

“Levels?” Cross asked nonchalantly, standing up.

Allen studied the window. “All level ones,” he said.

“Well, then, deal with ‘em.”

“Master...”

Cross pulled out a mallet out of nowhere with his free hand and Allen yet out a yelp. “I’m on it, Master,” he cried and bolted out of the room.

Cross dropped back into his chair, putting the mallet back wherever he’d found it and taking another swig of his wine bottle.

“Aren’t you gonna help him?” Harry asked warily, wincing when he heard a crash followed by another scream outside. His natural curiosity was staring to overwhelm him and he found himself moving toward the window, barely paying attention to Cross’s response to his question.

He jumped back when the window, and the entire wall around it, exploded and the familiar white-haired form of Allen was sent tumbling into the wall. Harry, having hastily called up a shield charm to block the debris—not even recalling that he wasn’t, technically speaking, supposed to be using magic outside of Hogwarts—was surprised to find that the shield charm was a brilliant emerald green color.

A balloon-like creature, an akuma Harry reminded himself, flew toward toward them and Cross, who’d relocated to the other side of the room still drinking from the wine bottle, snorted. “A measly level 1 got the best of you, Idiot Apprentice?” he said, raising his lone visible eyebrow.

Allen coughed, brushing snowy white locks out of his face as he sat up, his silver-clawed arm curled almost protectively around something. Harry gazed through the green shield and found that the white-haired boy’s left arm was curled around a tiny girl that couldn’t be older than five.

The akuma raised its barrel to fire on Allen and the little girl again and Harry, releasing the shield charm now that there was no more debris flying at him, reacted quickly. He didn’t want Allen, who’d been nice enough to answer his questions, and an innocent little girl to get hurt or killed.

“ _Reducto!_ ” he shouted and a burst of emerald green light shot out of his wand and crashed into the akuma causing it to explode in a burst of dark energy that evaporated quickly.

“There’s still three more,” Allen said, darting toward the gaping hole in the wall and leaping out of it. Harry moved to the hole, watching as Allen leapt into the air and crashed his silver-clawed hand into one akuma before, using that akuma as a springboard, leapt to the next one.

Screams of terror sounded and Harry whipped his head around, eyes widening when he saw a clump of people running away from the third akuma that was firing at them. To his horror, whenever one of those beams of purple light hit someone, pentacles covered their skin and they exploded into dust. He swallowed back the nausea and pointed his wand shakily at the third akuma.

_I destroyed the last one somehow. I can with this one too,_ he thought. “ _Reducto!_ ” he shouted and a blast of emerald green light shot forward and crashed into the third akuma, causing it to explode into tiny bits of dark energy that faded away as quickly as it’d appeared.

Allen, jumping down from the roof he’d landed on when he’d destroyed the second to last akuma, ran his right hand through his disheveled white hair as his other arm shrank back into a scaly red arm with a glowing green cross embedded on the back of its hand. “Thanks,” he said with a smile at Harry.

“Oh, you’re welcome. Why did they attack those people though?” Harry said in confusion.

“They have to do what the Millennium Earl tells them to do. Akuma are such pitiful creatures,” Allen said, looking sad and lost in thought.

“Akuma carry out the will of that fatso Millennium Earl,” Cross said, striding over to join them, throwing the bottle of wine over his shoulder. It landed on the bed Harry had been sitting on earlier and bounced to the ground, though it didn’t break. “And the Millennium Earl basically wants to destroy all of humanity so those akuma help him do that. That’s why us Exorcists have to fight against ‘em ‘cause it’d be really bad if the Millennium Earl won obviously.”

Harry shivered. _The Millennium Earl sounds worse than Voldemort and I didn’t even think that was possible,_ he thought since he knew that Voldemort just wanted to take over the Wizarding World. Even if Voldemort was insane and did want to kill off the majority of the world’s population, according to what he knew—i.e. what he learned from Hermione and the Order—he really did just want to rule the Wizarding World.

“Brat, I’m out of alcohol,” Cross said with a one-eyed glare at Allen.

Allen bolted down the sidewalk and Harry noticed that he was heading toward the nearest liquor store. He had to wonder just how Allen would be able to get the alcohol when he, clearly, wasn’t old enough to buy alcohol.

“And you,”—Cross turned to look at Harry—“you’re an Accomodator, whether you like it or not, so you’re just gonna have to deal with it. Akuma are going to be attracted to you, no matter where you go, and they will try to kill you. So it’s either learn to fight or die. Your choice, brat.”

Harry felt a bit angry with Cross’s blunt, harsh tone but, at the same time, he found it somewhat refreshing. Instead of just telling him that he was too young to handle such matters, that it was none of his concern, that he didn’t have to fight, he was telling him how it was. Instead of treating Harry like a child to be coddled, Cross was telling him the harsh reality that he was faced with now that he was the Accomodator to Innocence, to the very substance that akuma were drawn to and the only thing that could destroy them.

And not only that but Harry remembered hearing the screams of terror and see the terror etched onto the faces of those innocent people who were running from the akuma. They hadn’t done anything wrong and yet they were being killed by the akuma just because some guy called the Millennium Earl hated humanity. And their eyes, their terror-filled faces would remain ingrained on his mind.

Harry had been told, multiple times by his friends, that he had a bit of a hero complex. He had, after all, faced off against a basilisk to save Ginny’s life in his second year, risked getting his soul sucked out to try and save Sirius from the Dementors in his second year, nearly got expelled from Hogwarts for saving his cousin Dudley from a Dementor before his fifth year, and willingly went into the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius, despite knowing, deep down, that it was a trap.

He knew that he couldn’t just do nothing when innocents were being killed for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially not when he’d actually gained the power to do something about it.

And, besides, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that the Millennium Earl was worse than Voldemort and that the war against Voldemort seemed insignificant compared to the Exorcists’ fight against the Millennium Earl. And, after seeing those akuma in action, Harry could readily believe that it was worse.

He still wanted to find his friends and his godfather, and he also did want to know just how the bloody hell he’d gotten to Africa to begin with, though. _Could it be possible to do both?_ He didn’t know.

Allen came back and held out a bottle of wine to his Master. Cross took it, removed the cork with his teeth, and took a long drink as Allen panted, stuffing some gold coins into his pocket. Harry blinked because these people didn’t seem to believe in witches or wizards so why did they have gold coins— _what are those things actually called? Hermione would know—_ instead of pounds?

“Hmm, you remembered the good stuff this time, Idiot Apprentice,” Cross mused.

“How?” Harry said. “It’s illegal to sell alcohol to a minor.”

Cross and Allen looked at him and Cross snorted. “Funny, brat,” he said.

“I’m serious.”

“Harry, there really isn’t a law against selling alcohol to a minor,” Allen said. “I’ve been buying Master alcohol since I’ve been his apprentice and I haven’t had any trouble, no matter where I went.”

Harry stared. “Really? But it’s illegal where I come from,” he said in confusion.

“Where do you come from?”

“England.”

Cross snorted. “There’s no law there either,” he said.

Harry shook his head. “But there is,” he said. He was positive of that. He remembered when he was nine and his aunt and uncle had been forced to drag him with them and Dudley to go shopping. He’d seen this sixteen year old get turned away from buying alcohol because, the store clerk had told him, it was against the law and she could get fired for doing that, if not worse.

Cross snorted and took a long drink of his wine bottle. “No there ain’t, brat,” he said. “Why am I even arguing with you about this? Tch.”

Harry was still very confused but, as he wracked his brain—he really wished Hermione was there—he couldn’t figure out why that law wouldn’t exist.

Unless...pieces started to fall into place. Harry may not have the greatest grades in school but he was far from stupid; he was actually rather intelligent but, after years of getting hit and locked in the cupboard for getting higher grades than Dudley who couldn’t get good grades to save his life, he hide his intelligence. He may not be on Hermione’s level of intelligence but he did know that thing weren’t just adding up.

If the law didn’t exist then that meant…

“What year is it?” Harry asked finally.

Cross and Allen looked at him like he’d grown a second head. He knew he sounded crazy but he was starting to feel suspicious about everything and knew that this might be his best way of putting the pieces together in his head.

“It’s 1896,” Allen said finally.

And everything firmly clicked into place.

Harry fell to his knees, eyes wide with shock as the full implication of Allen’s words weighed down on him. After learning about akuma and the Millennium Earl and finding out that he was an Accomodator for Innocence, this was the biggest shock that he’d received all day.

_1896._

“Harry, are you okay?” Allen asked worriedly.

Harry couldn’t think straight. He didn’t know how it happened but it must have had something to do with the Veil. He didn’t know how the Veil had transported him a hundred years into the past but that must have been the cause. Third years was proof that time travel was possible but never did Harry think that it was possible to go this far back in time.

And yet…

“Harry?” Allen said.

Harry ran a hand through his messy black hair. “Sorry. I just...give me a moment,” he said as his mind continued to attempt to wrap around the revelation. He didn’t know how to react; shock was the first emotion that he could honestly say he felt and despair since he had no idea if he could get home, when home was a century in the future and fear because Hermione had warned him that meddling with time could have disastrous effects.

And yet...it seemed that he was already getting involved in this time period. He realized that as he looked at the wand he was still holding in his hand and, more importantly, at the green glow of the Innocence that was embedded into the wood. The Innocence had chosen him as his Accomodator and that meant that he was part of the war between the Exorcists and the Earl whether he liked it or not, just as Cross said. Akuma would be drawn to him because of it, according to Cross and Harry doubted that Cross was the type of person to lie about something like that; at least, based on his first impression of the man, he wasn’t.

That meant that he was going to be unintentionally meddling with the past whether he liked it or not because he wasn’t supposed to be there.

And yet he realized that there was nothing he could do about it. He didn’t know how he’d traveled a hundred years into the past and that meant that he didn’t know how to get back. Hermione might know but even Harry doubted that.

He didn’t even know if Hermione, Ron, and Sirius had ended up in the same time as him.

It was both a sobering and somber thought.

“Are you gonna keep moping around or what?” Cross said impatiently.

Harry bit his lip to keep from snapping back with a _well, sorry that I’m having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I’m a hundred years in the past with no idea how the hell I got here_ and pushed himself to his feet. He couldn’t tell them; they wouldn’t believe him. So he decided to keep it close to himself for now.

“Well, brat, at least you got back to your feet,” Cross said. “Okay, here’s the deal. I don’t give a damn why you’re so shocked by the year. The fact remains that you’re an Accomodator for Innocence and akuma are gonna be gunning for you left and right. While I absolutely loathe the idea of taking on another apprentice, we’re short on Exorcists as it is and I ain’t gonna let another Exorcist get killed ‘cause you did something stupid because you lacked guidance. The Vatican would be even less happy with me than they already are if I let that happen and I really don’t wanna deal with their shit. So you’re either gonna join Allen and be my apprentice too or you’re gonna go ahead and get killed. Your choice, brat.”

“Not much of a choice, is there?” Harry said dryly since he really couldn’t see a choice. Besides, before the revelation of just _when_ he was came out, he had been leaning towards becoming an Exorcist anyway, simply because the Millennium Earl seemed to be worse than Voldemort.

His friends would likely say that it was just his hero complex speaking but if Harry could save people from getting hurt or killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time—memories of Cedric’s final moments came into his mind—then he would. He didn’t think he could walk away from this kind of fight if he wanted to; he just wasn’t that kind of person.

“All right,” Harry added and glanced at his wand. “Though I don’t know how you can actually train me. I already know how to use a wand.”

“But you don’t know how to use Innocence nor do you know how to fight against akuma. You just got lucky here today, brat,” Cross said.

Harry bit his lip as he bristled because he knew that Cross was right. He knew how to use a wand but he did not know how to fight akuma; he’d just thrown the first curse he could think of and hoped for the best. Even if it had worked, that didn’t really mean that Harry knew what he was doing.

“All right, you’ve made your point,” he said.

“Whatever,” Cross said and glanced at the ruined inn as he took another drink of his wine. “Let’s go.” He walked off without another word and Allen trailed after him, giving Harry a faint smile as he did so.

Harry walked after them. “Um, where are we going?” he asked since, while he may have agreed to be trained on how to use his Innocence by Cross, he did still want to find his friends and godfather.

“Who knows when it comes to Master,” Allen said.

Harry hesitated, then asked, “Do you think it’ll be possible to look for my friends and godfather?”

Allen cast a sidelong glance at him. “Do you know where they could be?” he asked.

“Um...” Harry mutely shook his head. “They might still be in the area.”

Allen hummed and turned to Cross. “Master, may Harry look around for his friends and godfather before we leave?” he asked politely.

Cross snorted. “We’re not leaving until the morning so go ahead and do what you want, brats,” he said and strode off, finishing off the wine and then disappearing into a building.

Allen grimaced and turned to Harry, giving him a kind smile. “Would you like some help?” he offered.

“Sure, thanks,” Harry said.

He supposed he was taking the revelation a bit better than one would think but, given all that he’d been through over the course of the past five years, he really had come to just accept the strange and drastic things that have happened in his life. Perhaps the truth of the situation just hadn’t set in yet but, for now, lashing out wouldn’t be the wisest thing to do.

Harry was stuck a hundred years in the past and he supposed he would have to just make the most of it until he could find his friends, his godfather and, if possible, a way back home.

**. . .**

_Next Time: In the Deserts of Egypt_

**. . .**


	2. In the Deserts of Egypt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry finds out that Allen's childhood is quite similar to his own, and that he should never challenge Allen to poker ever. Meanwhile, Hermione gets her first look at the dangers of the akuma, and the power of the Innocence.

**2**

**In the Deserts of Egypt**

The suns rays beat down on the sandy streets as two dust-covered travelers darted down the road, the hoods of their light cloaks covering their face and their hair as they meandered their way around the stalls and people on the streets. Dust kicked up in their wake and some shouted at them to watch where they were going in Arabic but they ignored it, too focused on getting away from those that were chasing them.

Finally, after what felt like several hours, the one in the lead veered off into an alley and was quickly joined by his companion, Panting, the leader lowered the hood of his cloak to reveal messy black hair framing a lightly tanned face on which rested a pair of round glasses over emerald green eyes and a unique lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead. He crouched next to the building and peered around it at the crowded street, searching for any sign of their pursuers and let out a quiet breath.

“I think we finally lost ‘em,” he said, turning to his companion.

“Just how can anyone run in this heat?” his companion said, lowering the hood of his cloak to reveal messy white hair framing a pale face on which was an angry red scar that, starting at the upside down pentacle above his left eye, cut across it and down his cheek. His silver eyes were alit with exhaustion as he leaned against the wall of the sand-colored building next to them.

“They’re used to it, I suppose,” Harry Potter said with a shrug as he rested his back against the wall and slid down to rest his aching legs. His white-haired companion, Allen Walker, joined him, his white-gloved left arm resting on his lap.

Three months had gone by since Harry had made the decision to become an Exorcist. Three months since he’d started traveling with Allen and his master, Exorcist General Cross Marian. Three months since he’d tried to find any sign of his friends and godfather. And, most importantly, three months of finding out just what constituted _training_ in the eyes of the womanizing general who wracked up debts wherever he went.

Granted, Harry did get training, in the form of getting kicked out onto a street where akuma were present and told to deal with them, but, frankly, he could do without the debts that he and Allen were more often than not left to take care of. At least he was getting better at using his Innocence; he found that most of the spells that he’d learned the past five years at Hogwarts actually worked with his Innocence. However, the more he used the spells, the more energy was drained out of him.

Cross had said that though Harry’s Innocence wasn’t a parasitic-type, it seemed to drain energy from Harry more than regular equip-types, though not nearly as much as parasitic-types. He didn’t know why and neither did Harry.

Nonetheless, the traveling he’d been doing with Allen and Cross for the past three months had, somehow, brought them to Egypt. Harry really had no clue why they were there, except that there did seem to be a large number of akuma sightings in the area.

“Probably,” Allen agreed, bringing Harry back to the present. His silver eyes were thoughtful as he added, “They’re not going to give up that easily though.”

“Yeah. They didn’t in Nigeria,” Harry said. All he knew about what happened when debt collectors had cornered Allen while they were in Nigeria, and Harry was dealing with an akuma problem on the outskirts of the town they were in, was that Allen had come away from it with the debt paid off and money in his pocket. When Harry had asked him what happened, all he got was a sweetly innocent smile that, for some reason, sent a chill down his spine.

Harry didn’t know when, exactly, he’d started seeing Allen as a friend. Perhaps it was because of all the time they’d spent together, dodging or, somehow, managing to pay off debt collectors or fighting akuma or trying to track down Cross Marian whenever he left them behind—which was often—but they had become somewhat friends. When they’d first started traveling together with Cross, Allen was very polite and kind but also very distant; he rarely talked unless it was about what they were doing at the time. In the last three months, that had only changed a little; while Allen was still very polite, he seemed to have warmed up to Harry a little and wasn’t as distant as before.

“We’re going to end up running out of places to run and hide,” Allen commented thoughtfully. “I suppose I can just do with them what I did with those debt collectors in Nigeria.”

“Which was what exactly?” Harry asked.

He regretted asking when Allen’s lips quirked into the same sweetly innocent smile that he’d only seen once before in Nigeria. He shivered despite himself.

“You’ll see,” was all Allen said.

“There they are!” A shout sounded and Harry whipped his head to the side, groaning when he saw that the two debt collectors had gone to the street over and had spotted them. They had likely been looking at every alley that they came across just in case Harry and Allen were hiding in them.

“Bloody hell,” Harry muttered and turned to Allen. “Well, whatever you have planned, I really hope that it works.”

“Oh it will,” Allen said sweetly, standing up and turning to face the debt collectors as they came to a halt a few feet in front of him.

“All right, kids. That’s far enough. Now you two are going to pay your master’s debt now,” the debt collector in the lead said firmly.

“I have a proposition for you,” Allen said calmly. “Why don’t we have a game of poker?”

The debt collectors exchanged glances and snorted. “Are you seriously going to gamble with your master’s debt?” he said.

“What’s the matter? Do you think you’re going to lose?” Allen asked, tilting his head to the side with that same sweetly innocent smile on his face.

“Of course not, kid. Fine. You’d better be ready to cough up the money when we win,” the lead debt collector said firmly.

“Of course,” Allen said and pulled out a deck of cards from his pants pocket. “Why don’t we find a more comfortable location?”

_Just what are you planning?_ Harry thought.

“Fine,” the debt collector said and the three of them, with Allen and Harry trailing behind them, left the alley and headed toward a cafe across the street. They took a seat around one of the empty tables outside and Allen began shuffling the cards, not once taking his eyes off the debt collectors seated around him. Harry had to admit he was impressed by Allen’s shuffling capabilities; he was able to shuffle them between his hands so rapidly that they seemed to blur together.

“Ready to begin?” Allen asked, still shuffling the cards.

“Yeah, just deal the card already, kid,” the lead debt collector said.

Allen grinned and began dealing swiftly as if he was a professional dealer.

Twenty minutes later and Harry was staring in utter shock at the current results staring at him in the face. Allen was still holding that sweetly innocent smile on his face as he scanned the five cards in his hand with piles of guineas, and piles of clothes, laying around him. The three debt collectors were down to their boxers and one shirt between the three of them and were shivering despite the warm Egyptian air.

Harry leaned forward to look at Allen’s hand. He was holding a king of spades, a queen of spades, a two of hearts, a three of diamonds, and a ten of spades. He frowned to himself while still attempting to wrap his mind around the fact that Allen had won every single hand that he’d played with the three debt collectors since they started.

“It’s not possible to be this lucky, Allen. How the bloody hell are you doing this?” he whispered to his friend.

“It’s very simple. I’m cheating,” Allen murmured back, his lips hidden by his cards. He spoke so low that only Harry could hear.

Harry just stared. “What?” he said.

Allen pulled the two of hearts and three of diamonds out of his hand and placed them face down next to the deck. “Two cards down,” he said and went to draw two cards. Harry watched, baffled, as two cards slid into his hand from the sleeve of his shirt, an a jack of spades and an ace of spades. It was so subtle that if Harry had not been looking right at him when he did it then he wouldn’t have noticed. As it was, the three debt collectors didn’t seem to have noticed it.

“You mean you’ve been winning all of these hands by cheating?” Harry whispered very quietly. The last thing he wanted was for those debt collectors to find out that little fact. Harry may not approve of cheating but, frankly, if it meant getting those debt collectors off their backs then he would let it slide.

“This isn’t the first debt that I’ve had to pay off for Master since I became his apprentice. More often than not, Master would leave me with the debts and the debt collectors would come crawling, demanding that I pay up. I became proficient in cheating at poker just to survive and get those debt collectors to leave me alone. As a result, I _never_ lose at cards. _Never!_ ” A dark aura seemed to surround Allen as that sweetly innocent smile turned chilly. Harry found himself shivering and moving back just a little when a little chuckle that was pure evil emanated from the smaller white-haired boy.

“I call,” the lead debt collector said and placed his cards on the table. “Four of a Kind.”

His companions groaned and threw their cards down, obviously having a hand that wasn’t enough to beat a four of a kind.

“Well, it would appear that my streak continues,” Allen said and placed the cards on the ground. “Royal Straight Flush.”

The lead debt collector groaned. “How the hell…?” he exclaimed, reluctantly taking off his shirt and throwing it over to the pile of clothes on the ground beside Allen.

Allen shrugged as he picked up the cards and began shuffling them. “We can go another hand if you would like,” he said.

“No! I mean...your master’s debt’s forgiven. We won’t bother you again,” the lead debt collector said and his companions nodded sagely in agreement.

Allen hummed and, gathering the cards neatly in his hands, stuffed the deck into his pocket. He then picked up the guineas he’d won off the debt collectors and, after counting them, stuffed them into his pockets as well. “You can have your clothes back by the way,” he said and walked off, leaving the debt collectors to scrabble to get their clothes and put them back on.

Harry trailed after his friend. _Who knew Allen had such a...dark side to him,_ he thought and shivered at the memory of what he was going to call Black Allen from now on.

**. . .**

Three months had gone by since she arrived in the village of Pyli—she had finally found out the name of the village she’d landed in a few days after she’d arrived at the local library—and, so far, Hermione was having no luck on either finding her friends and Sirius or even decent transportation out of Pyli. As it was, she wasn’t entirely sure if she should leave; she only knew so much about the world in the late 1800s, only what she’d read in history books both in the future and at the local library in Pyli. And she also didn’t have the slightest clue of where to begin looking.

She decided that it would be better if she remained in one spot until she found some sort of clue to lead her to her friends and Sirius. The last thing she wanted was to get lost somewhere in the world that was likely vastly different from the one that she was used to.

She also had to keep her magic under wraps. She hadn’t been able to find her wand though—it was most likely buried under all the snow that seemed to perpetually cover the village—so that meant that she wouldn’t be able to do magic anyway. She didn’t know how to do wandless magic yet; she was still just barely grasping the concept behind verbless magic and that was only because she’d looked ahead into the books for sixth year.

She had tried doing research to try and find out anything about the world that she was now stuck in, as well as possible ways to get back to her own time. Time travel was a magical concept and it was clear that she would likely have to find her way to a magical library, like the one at Hogwarts, to find the answers that she sought. So the second thing that she was researching had come to a halt pretty quickly. The first thing that she was researching was a lot easier; it would seem that the history that she’d taught herself, mostly at her parents’ insistence since she didn’t learn muggle history at Hogwarts, was still the same.

Hermione knew that she would also have to be careful since she knew that if she accidentally did something to affect the past then it would result in an alteration made to the future. And that alteration could change everything, it could even make it to where Hermione wouldn’t be born. That was the nature of the phenomenon known, by muggles, as the Butterfly Effect so Hermione was trying not to get involved in the world around her lest she accidentally change something.

It wasn’t working out as well as she would’ve hoped, mostly because of Ariadne and her mother Agatha. They had started getting suspicious about a week after Hermione had arrived in Pyli when her “parents” hadn’t come to pick her up, or even try to find her and so Hermione had to quickly think of a cover story. She had settled on saying that she’d lied and that her parents were dead and she’d just wanted to start a new life somewhere away from the bad memories. It made her feel sick that she had to say something like that but she couldn’t tell them the truth. Best case scenario would be that they just wouldn’t believe her; worst case scenario would be that they would think she was crazy and possibly send her to an asylum or something.

They’d bought the cover story though and decided that she could stay with them until she was ready to get back on her feet. She had thanked them for their kindness but tried to deny it, not wanting to risk altering the timeline since she wasn’t supposed to be there, but they had insisted and they refused to take no for an answer.

Hopefully, her staying with Ariadne and Agatha wouldn’t have repercussions on the rest of the timeline.

She sighed as she buried her nose into the book that lay open in front of her, trying to focus on what was written on the page rather than on the thoughts that had been plaguing her for the past three months. She knew that she may, very well, be over-thinking things, since she did have a tendency of doing that, but she couldn’t help it. She honestly still didn’t know what to make of what happened and couldn’t find a logical reason for why the Veil had thrown her, and possibly her friends and Sirius, a century into the past. All the knowledge that she’d amassed during her time at Hogwarts, and her own personal study time, wasn’t helping much since she didn’t have access to any magical texts that might help her solve her dilemma.

The only thing that she really could do is continue trying to research anything that may be able to help her while playing the part of the orphan who was just trying to get back on her feet. And, until she found away to get to Hogwarts or any other place with a magical library or until she found a hint as to whether her best friends and Sirius had ended up in that time, and possibly where, she was stuck where she was.

_Hopefully Harry, Ron, and Sirius are all right,_ she thought, absently turning the page of the book she was reading.

The door to the den where she was seated, curled up in an armchair by the fire, opened and she lifted her head as Ariadne walked into the room carrying a tray of steaming tea and bread. “Mama’s going to go get some more groceries later and I’m going to help her. If you want to come, you can,” she said as she placed the tray on the coffee table in front of her.

“Oh thank you. I would like to help out if you don’t mind,” Hermione said. She wanted to be helpful because she felt like she was intruding upon Mrs. Alanis’s generosity and had decided to help out when she could as payment.

“Thanks. We’re bringing a lot back so an extra set of hands is welcomed!” Ariadne said cheerfully.

Hermione, saving her spot in the book, put it aside and reached for the mug of tea. She picked it up and, blowing on it, sipped it. “Is it still snowing?” she asked. She’d noticed, within the first week in Pyli, that whenever the snow started to melt away, it would start snowing almost immediately. That meant that the village was always covered in a perpetually thick layer of snow all the time, despite it being the middle of spring.

“Yeah. No surprise there, really,” Ariadne said, flopping into the armchair across from Hermione, picking up her mug of tea, and slinging her legs over the armrest.

“Don’t you find it odd that this has been going on for six months now?” Hermione asked. “It shouldn’t be possible logically speaking. I mean, you said it started three months before I arrived here and I can understand that because that would put it in winter. But for it to go on into the summer? It makes no logical sense.”

Ariadne shrugged. “Yeah, I get that but everyone’s gotten so used to it that we’ve given up trying to see the logic behind what happened,” she said. “So what’re you reading now?”

“Oh, _The Odyssey_ ,” Hermione said, holding up the copy of Homer’s _The Odyssey_ that Mrs. Alanis had lent her a few days ago. “I’ve never had the time to actually finish reading this and it is fascinating.”

“I, personally, never got into it,” Ariadne said with a shrug.

The door opened again and Mrs. Alanis poked her head into the room. “Are you ready to go, Ariadne?” she asked.

“Sure. Hermione wants to come with us,” Ariadne said, swinging her legs off the armrest and standing up.

“That’s fine. We could use the extra pair of hands,” Mrs. Alanis said. “Thank you, Hermione.”

“Oh, you’re most welcome, Mrs. Alanis,” Hermione said as she put her mug down and stood up. She reached for her thick jacket that was draped over the back of the armchair and slipped it on before wrapping her scarf around her neck. Mrs. Alanis had been generous enough to give Hermione some clothes to wear after they found out, from Hermione’s story about her fake past, that she only had the clothes on her back. It wasn’t a lie though, since Hermione really had arrived in Pyli with only the clothes on her back.

The three of them left the shop and headed down the snow-packed road. As usual, there weren’t many people outside and those that were outside were quickly rushing about their business as quickly as possible. Even if they were used to the snow, that didn’t mean that they would stay out in the cold for too long lest they risk getting sick.

As they neared the plaza were Hermione had been found three months earlier, Hermione noticed that it seemed busier than usual. She turned to Ariadne and Mrs. Alanis in confusion but they were looking at each other, just as puzzled as she was.

Mrs. Alanis moved over to join a light-brown haired young woman that was standing nearby. “Chloe, what is going on?” she asked.

Chloe turned to Mrs. Alanis and Hermione was surprised to see tears in her eyes. “Do you remember Darrius and Delphina?” she asked.

“You mean Petra’s twins? What happened? Are they all right?” Mrs. Alanis asked in concern.

Chloe shook her head. “Delphina’s dead. She was playing in the snow when she was hit by a visiting carriage who wasn’t paying attention because of that blizzard from this morning,” she whispered. “Petra’s devastated so we’re holding a candlelight vigil for Delphina right now, while it’s not snowing.”

“Oh dear. Ariadne, will you and Hermione take care of the grocery shopping? I need to pay my respects and speak to Petra,” Mrs. Alanis said.

“Sure thing, Mama,” Ariadne said with a small, sad smile. “Give her and Darrius my condolences.”

“I will.” Mrs. Alanis disappeared into the crowd of gathered mourners.

Ariadne turned to Hermione. “C’mon. We should get moving if we want to get this grocery shopping done. Chloe’s probably right and another snowstorm is incoming,” she said.

“Did you know that girl Delphina?” Hermione asked.

“Not well. Everyone knows everyone in this village but I never really spent much time with the other girls here. I was too busy working at the shop or running errands for Mama. It’s been hard since Papa died,” Ariadne said.

Hermione, remembering that Ariadne had told her that he dad had died the first day that the seemingly eternal winter had hit the village, said nothing, only giving Ariadne a sympathetic look. She may not know what it was like to not have a parent but she could only imagine how it must feel to lose a parent, especially when one was close to that parent. And it was clear that Ariadne had been close to her father.

“I remember when Papa died and he showed up,” Ariadne added.

“Who?” Hermione said in confusion.

“I think he said he was the Millennium Earl or something like that,” Ariadne said. “He came to me after Papa died and offered to bring him back to life. I told him no since I knew that Papa was in a better place and, after everything that he’d been through in his life, he deserved everlasting peace. Never saw that guy again after that.”

She shrugged and added, “Then again, I could’ve just imagined him. I’ve always been told that I have a very wild imagination so it probably was just my imagination. He’s a pretty creepy guy though, whether he was real or not.”

“I’ve never heard of a Millennium Earl,” Hermione admitted.

“Neither did I. That’s kinda why I’m thinking that I really did imagine him. Ah well. C’mon, let’s go grocery shopping.”

Hermione nodded and, making a mental note to look at the library for any information on the Millennium Earl—she was curious to know whether the person existed or really was just a fictional character brought to life by an overactive imagination—she followed Ariadne toward the indoor market.

**. . .**

“It’s hot.”

“Harry, you’ve said that five times since we left Alexandria.”

“Well, it is. Why are we here again?”

“Trying to find Master. He said he was heading in this direction I think.”

“Speaking of that, where are we?”

Allen paused and looked around, his brow furrowed as he studied the oasis that they were passing as well as sand-colored buildings in the distance and sand dunes stretching out around him. They had left Alexandria about two days ago to catch up with their master who, in typical Cross fashion, had left them with his debts before leaving, hence the run through Alexandria and the impromptu poker match two days before they left. At least Allen was able to win enough to buy them enough supplies to hopefully last the entire journey to, well, wherever it was that Cross had gone this time.

Now if he only knew just where he was. He turned to Harry. “I have no idea,” he said.

Harry smacked his hand to his forehead. “Why did I follow you again?” he asked.

Allen shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “I don’t know. You know I have a bad sense of direction,” he said.

“Bad? Try _non-existent_ ,” Harry said with a snort.

Allen couldn’t exactly deny that. He really did have no sense of direction whatsoever. Frankly, it was only because of Timcampy that he hadn’t gotten lost when they’d arrived in Alexandria to begin with, or anywhere else that he’d traveled with his master.

“Let’s just head to that city and ask around. They might have seen him,” Harry said with a sigh and headed toward the city in the distance, Allen trailing after him.

A flutter of gold came to them and Allen beamed as he recognized it. “Timcampy,” he said as the golden golem flew to Allen. It nuzzled him before tilting its head back and a little version of his master was projected out of the golem’s mouth.

“ _Brats. I’m heading to Cairo. Stay in Tanta,_ _the city Tim came from,_ _and don’t do anything stupid,_ ” Cross said and his image vanished.

“Why does he keep saying that? We haven’t done anything stupid,” Harry said bewildered.

“Well, we did destroy part of the Library of Alexandria,” Allen said, recalling that had happened the morning they’d left the city.

“That wasn’t our fault,” Harry grumbled.

Allen knew that was true. That was because four akuma had arrived in the city and, after finding out that there were two pieces of Innocence in the city, had attacked while Allen and Harry were visiting the Library of Alexandria. They were only visiting it because Harry was curious and they were really only going to take a quick look and leave; now, they would be lucky if they were ever allowed back in Alexandria. After all, the fight with those four akuma had resulted in a wing of the library losing a wall, and at least three bookshelves of ancient texts.

“I know,” the white-haired boy said. “C’mon. Tim, can you lead us to Tanta?”

Timcampy nodded and flew into the air before flying toward the city. Allen began following him and Harry fell into step alongside him.

They walked in silence for a while when they came across a caravan where an elderly couple, a younger couple, and two small children were struggling to put some supplies that had fallen out of the back back into it. Allen felt bittersweet memories come into his mind as he caught sight of the props, juggling balls, and clown costumes and a sad smile of remembrance crossed his lips. He veered off the road and headed toward the caravan, prompting a confused Harry to jog after him.

“Hello, ma’am. Do you need any help?” he asked politely with a slight bow of greeting to the elder woman who was trying to gather all the juggling balls that kept rolling away from her.

“Oh thank you so much, good sir,” the woman said, straightening him and her back cracked a little. “Ah, I’m not as young as I used to be and this bending over isn’t something I can do for a long period of time anymore.”

“I understand, ma’am,” Allen said with a smile as he bent down and began gathering the juggling balls together.

Harry knelt down beside him and began helping as well, having to crawl under the caravan to grab a few of them, and placed them in the basket the elderly woman held out. By that time, the younger couple had finished gathering the props and costumes and were placing them in the back of the caravan.

“Thank you. You two are really kind,” the woman said, carrying the basket toward the caravan. “Are you two heading toward Tanta?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Allen said.

“Would you two like to travel with us until we get there? It’s the least I can do for your help,” the woman said.

“Thank you for your offer, ma’am. We accept,” Allen said, knowing that Harry wouldn’t mind getting off his feet for the rest of the journey. He suspected that they still had several hours before they’d reach the city anyway.

A few minutes later and the two of them were sitting on the back of the caravan as it continued its bumpy journey toward Tanta. Harry leaned toward Allen. “That was rather nice of you, though you seemed sad,” he said.

“Those costumes and props just brought back some memories of my childhood before Master started training me,” Allen said, thinking back to his days with the circus. Both the bad times, when he was working under the vile man Cosimo, and the good times, when he was traveling with Mana.

“I worked at a circus as a kid,” he added, resting his chin on his bent knees as he gazed at the cloud of dust the caravan conjured up behind it.

“You did? Your parents let you?” Harry said surprised.

Allen was silent for a long moment, debating whether to open up a bit more about himself or not. He hadn’t really talked with Harry about his past, just as Harry hadn’t talked with him about his past, since they met three months ago. That wasn’t because he didn’t want to talk about his past, though that did play a part since there were some aspects of his past that he didn’t want to talk about with just anyone—like what happened to Mana—but there were some things that he didn’t mind talking about. His time with Mana, his time at the circus, and, oddly enough, even the reason why he was working at the circus at a young age were things that he didn’t mind discussing. He just didn’t because it never really came up.

“My parents abandoned me when I was born,” he said quietly.

“What?” Harry looked shocked.

Allen nodded to his left arm. “It was because of my deformed left arm. They either thought I was a monster or it was the devil’s work, or something like that—I don’t really know but, considering that’s how almost everyone used to see me, I figured that was the reason—and they abandoned me. I don’t even remember what happened after that; all I know is that when I was about five or so, I started working at the circus.”

“I can’t believe your parents just abandoned you like that,” Harry said. “They were your parents.”

Allen shrugged. “The only parent I know is Mana,” he said quietly.

“Mana?”

A sad smile crossed the smaller boy’s lips again as he turned his silver eyes to the sky. “Mana Walker. He was my unofficial adopted father and a traveling clown. We ran into each other when I was working at a circus when I was about seven, I’m not sure just how old I really was, and I had stumbled upon him burying his dog. I don’t even know what drew Mana to me in the first place; all I know is that, on December 25th, he’d asked me if I wanted to join him and basically adopted me as a son on that day.”

“You sound like you really loved him,” Harry said softly.

“He was my father. It didn’t matter that we weren’t blood related, he was my father. He was the one who took care of me after he unofficially adopted me and even named me. He was probably the only one who didn’t look at me, look at my arm, and see only a monster instead of a little boy. He...treated me like I was human.”

Allen felt tears well up in his eyes and he hastily wiped them away. Even though a few years had gone by since Mana’s death, it was still difficult to talk about him.

“Named you?” Harry said surprised.

“I was never given a name. At least, not one that anyone remembers, or cares enough to remember, anyway. I was called Red because that was the color of my arm; Mana was the one that named me Allen and I took on the name Walker after his death.”

“Oh...I’m sorry for your loss.”

Allen turned his gaze to the emerald-eyed teen seated next to him. “It’s okay. It still hurts but...at least I know he’s at peace now,” he said softly, thinking back to what happened after Mana had cursed him for turning him into an akuma as well as Mana’s final words to him.

_I love you, Allen…_

He returned his gaze to the sky above, a small sad smile once again on his lips.

“Yeah.” Harry fell silent for a moment. “I lost my parents too when I was really young.”

Allen lowered his head and turned to the emerald-eyed boy. He was gazing at the ground, a contemplative look in his eyes before he started speaking. “I was only a little over a year old when this...madman broke into our house and killed both of my parents. My mum died saving my life and...it was only because the police had arrived when they had that I wasn’t killed myself.”

“Oh. I’m sorry. Did the person who do it get caught at least?”

“He disappeared and only reappeared about a year ago,” Harry admitted.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” Harry trailed off, then, as if wanting to get off the subject of lost parents a little, he asked, “So how did you like being a clown?”

“It was enjoyable sometimes,” Allen said, thinking about the time when he used to perform with Mana. Those were definitely better than the times when he was performing with Cosimo’s troupe.

The two of them fell silent until a little head poked between them, causing Harry to jump in surprise. The little girl beamed at Allen, her dark eyes wide. “You used to be a clown?” she asked eagerly.

“Yeah,” Allen said with a smile.

The girl grinned. “Then you gotta perform with us!” she said.

“Amisi!” the young woman protested, moving to the back of the caravan and gently pulling her daughter away. “I’m sorry about her. She knows better than to say something like that.”

“But he was a clown once! I bet he’s a better clown than Hamady,” the little girl, Amisi, protested.

The other boy, Hamady, glared at Amisi and stuck out his tongue at her. She responded in kind. Their mother sighed. “Still, Amisi, that was rather rude of you to say something like that,” she scolded. “Now apologize to the nice young man.”

Amisi pouted but then turned her dark eyes to Allen. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s okay,” Allen assured her with a faint smile. He wouldn’t mind performing again; bringing smiles to the faces of those who watched him like Mana used to do. It was because of Mana that Allen no longer saw the world with jaded eyes as much anymore. While he still didn’t care for humans as much as he did akuma, he no longer resented them as he had when he was a child and was looked at, or treated, as nothing more than a monster by practically everyone he ever came into contact with. And performing was something that Mana enjoyed doing and Allen wouldn’t mind honoring his adopted father by performing again at some point in the future.

“Though if you do need the help, I wouldn’t mind,” he added. Besides, he and Harry were stuck in Tanta anyway since their master had told them to stay in Tanta for the time being. Why, Allen didn’t know but, then, he rarely did when it came to his master.

“Thank you but we will be fine,” the woman said.

Amisi pouted again but then her smile came back as she wiggled between Allen and Harry. “So what have you done as a clown?” she asked curiously, tilting her head to the side.

Allen smiled and began talking. It would pass the time anyway.

**. . .**

The caravan reached Tanta a few hours before sundown and Harry watched as Allen said his goodbyes to the traveling family of performers. As he watched, he found himself thinking about what Allen had told him, about how his own parents and those around him had treated him because of his deformed red arm. He found it surprising that his own childhood and Allen’s were rather similar; he, too, had been treated badly because of something that he couldn’t control by his relatives. Granted, he never told that to Allen, because that was not something he wanted to admit, but he did feel sympathetic since he understood, at least a little, how Allen felt growing up.

And Harry realized that he probably was better off than Allen because he had his friends and his godfather. He wasn’t bragging, he was simply stating a fact. _But_ _at least he has_ _a friend. I’m his friend,_ he thought and, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he had become Allen’s friend in the past three months.

He leaned against the wall, gazing around the city. The city wasn’t much different from Alexandria; the only major difference was that it was much smaller and there weren’t nearly as many people around. However, considering how late it was—and the desert was very cold once the sun fell—he figured that everyone was inside.

Allen, giving one last wave to the caravan, walked over to join Harry. “Mrs. Tahan insisted on giving us some money for our help,” he said. “Judging by the amount she gave us, as well as what we have on us, we should be able to get a room and something to eat.”

“Supposing you don’t spend all of it on food,” Harry teased since Allen had a _very_ large appetite, and that was probably an understatement.

Allen chuckled. “She also recommended an inn. We may as well go check it out,” he said.

“Sounds good to me,” Harry said.

“C’mon, she said it was this way,” Allen said, pointing down the street and walking down it. Harry followed after him.

Ten minutes later, he found himself wondering why the bloody hell he’d followed instead of asking for the directions and taking the lead. _You would think I’d learned my lesson after he got us lost after leaving Alexandria,_ Harry thought ruefully as he sighed, running a hand through his head while waiting for Allen who was patiently asking someone for directions to the inn. Somehow, in only ten minutes, they had ended up on the opposite end of the city, far from where the inn the woman Mrs. Tahan had recommended was located.

“Okay. He said that we just have to backtrack about three blocks and then go south for about three blocks before turning west and it will be about a block down,” Allen said as he rejoined them.

“Okay. By the way, remind me to never let you lead again ever,” Harry said.

Allen gave him a sheepish smile.

Harry took the lead and began walking back the way they had come. _Allen would probably never be able to find his way around Hogwarts,_ he mused, knowing full well that his white-haired friend with the lack of a sense of direction would get lost easier at Hogwarts than anyone else; those moving staircases even got Harry confused sometimes and he had a good sense of direction.

It took them another fifteen minutes but Harry finally spotted the inn that Mrs. Tahan had recommended. As it turned out, not only did they have enough money to pay for a room for a few days but, according to the innkeeper, the breakfast and dinner buffets were included in the price of the room and was all-you-can-eat.

Allen’s eyes had lit up when the innkeeper had said that and it was only Harry’s quick interference that prevented him from heading straight for the dining hall, since it was dinnertime. “Shouldn’t we make ourselves at least a little bit more presentable?” he said since they were still covered in sand and sweat from their trip. Even the caravan hadn’t been enough to keep out the heat or the sand.

“Oh. Yeah, that would be a good idea,” Allen said.

The two walked down the hallway to their room and, after dropping off their stuff, washing off as much of the sand in the adjacent bathroom, and getting changed into cleaner clothes that they’d bought in Alexandria, they headed for the dining hall.

Harry scanned the room before glancing at Allen, who was already eyeing the buffet line. “I see a table over there in the corner that’s empty. I’ll go get it while you go get your food,” he said.

Allen didn’t need to be told twice and was halfway to the buffet line before Harry had even finished speaking.

Harry had to admit that the looks on everyone in the dining hall’s faces were priceless when they saw Allen happily carrying four plates piled high with all kinds of food, and then going back for more. Harry only got himself two plates of food; he sweatdropped as he counted the total number of plates of food that Allen had brought.

Ten. And Harry knew, from the last three months, that ten plates of food was usually only about a quarter of what Allen usually ate.

Everyone was probably wondering where someone as small and slender as Allen even put all that food.

Harry and Cross were the only ones that knew that it was necessary for his Innocence.

It was a good thing that Allen liked food since he did need a lot of it.

_And I always thought Ron was bad,_ Harry thought with a small smile as he ate his own food, watching as Allen practically inhaled his. _But then Allen has more manners than Ron, even while practically inhaling his food._

After dinner, and four plates of dessert for Allen, the two made their way back to their room.

“It’s a wonder that they even have food left,” Harry commented as they entered their room and he sat down on his bed.

Allen shrugged. “If I need to, I can always make more money if we have to start paying for our food,” he said with that sweetly innocent smile that always warned of the subsequent emergence of Black Allen. Whenever he got into his card shark mood or someone made the mistake of mentioning debt around him—it was usually both since Allen’s skills at cheating at poker were usually only called upon when a debt collector came into the picture—that was usually when Black Allen would emerge.

Harry shivered. “Ah, I don’t think that’s necessary right now,” he said quickly. He didn’t want to admit it out loud but Black Allen scared him. “We should get some sleep. The last few days have been tiring.”

“The heat does that to you,” Allen said, relaxing and laying down on his bed, gazing up at the ceiling. “I think I’m going to go check out Mrs. Tahan’s family’s performance tomorrow.”

“I might join you. I honestly don’t know what else to do.” Harry laid down and rolled onto his side to look at Allen. “By the way, are there any akuma in this city?”

“No. My eye hasn’t activated at all since Alexandria,” Allen replied.

Harry hummed and rolled back onto his back and closing his eyes, drifting off to sleep moments later.

**. . .**

Hermione wasn’t sure whether it was the scream or the explosion that jolted her out of her doze. She sat up sharply, rubbing her head and gazing out the windows of the shop. Ariadne wasn’t there and neither was Mrs. Alanis and Hermione remembered that they were both paying their final to Delphina. That was why she’d offered to watch the shop for them, even though she knew that it was unlikely there was going to be any business since the entire village were attending Delphina’s funeral.

Three days had gone by since the little girl was killed and, during that time, the entire village had come together to not only craft a memorial for the little girl but also bury her in the small cemetery on the edge of the city. Even the cemetery was covered in a thick layer of snow and, according to Mrs. Alanis, it was always difficult to dig a grave out of the frozen earth. She had admitted that many people had died since the odd winter had engulfed the village and Hermione could readily understand why.

Another explosion sounded and Hermione instinctively ducked as the large windows of the shot exploded inward, sending shards of glass flying in all directions within the shop. She peered around the desk, her eyes wide when she saw the strange creature that was floating down the street, firing glowing purple beams at the buildings.

_What is that thing? I’ve never read about anything like it before,_ she thought, crawling out from behind the desk as the creature passed and being careful where she put her hands. The last thing she wanted was to get cut by the glass shards.

Pushing herself to her feet, and using the desk as leverage, she moved over to the door, wishing that she had her wand. In these kinds of situations, with danger so close, she always felt comfortable with her wand, even if she wasn’t sure what sort of spells would help her. She saw that two more of those strange creatures were starting to make their way down the street and she ducked down, hoping that it hadn’t spotted her.

“Hermione!” A shout sounded and Hermione turned, peering out the shattered ruins of the door to find Mrs. Alanis and Ariadne running toward her. One of those creatures spotted them and turned the gun barrels that were jutting out of its round white body on them.

“Look out!” Hermione shrieked.

Mrs. Alanis shoved Ariadne, causing the younger blonde girl to tumble forward just in time to avoid getting hit by the purple beams of light. Mrs. Alanis was not so lucky and Hermione watched, utter horror flooding her, as pentacles covered her skin and she shattered into particles of ash.

“Mama!” Ariadne cried, her eyes wide with horror as she stared at the pile of ash that had once been her mother.

Hermione darted forward when she saw that the strange creature was about to fire again and tackled Ariadne. The two of them went tumbling into an alley and just narrowly missed getting hit by those purple beams. Hermione really wished that she had her wand on her, even if she wasn’t sure the shield charm would work against those purple beams.

“Mama,” Ariadne whimpered, tears falling from her eyes.

The creature that had killed Mrs. Alanis, and had fired at them, turned to face Hermione and Ariadne completely, and Hermione could see the gun barrels glowing purple as they began to charge up another volley. Hermione gritted her teeth. _C’mon, Hermione. You gotta do something. Try a wandless spell. A shield charm or anything,_ she thought and tried to concentrate. “ _Protego!_ ” she shouted but nothing happened and the volley of purple beams shot toward her.

“ _Protego! Protego!_ ” Hermione cried in desperation. She didn’t know anything about wandless magic, nor was she even sure if her magic would work against those beams of light anyway, and she knew that her efforts were futile because of that lack of knowledge. But that didn’t stop her from trying. She didn’t want to die and she didn’t want Ariadne to die.

Ariadne and her mother had been so kind to Hermione these past three months. They took her in, gave her food, clothes, a roof over her head even though she was little more than a stranger. They didn’t know her and yet they were generous enough to help her when she needed it. She truly did appreciate everything that they had done for her.

She wished that she had more knowledge. She wished that she had thought to study wandless magic alongside verbless magic, since she knew those usually worked well together, but she hadn’t and she was regretting it.

She tried again, shouting out the shield charm, waving her hand in the same matter that she would wave her wand but nothing happened. Those beams of light didn’t seem to be aimed directly at her, otherwise she was sure that they would have hit her and Ariadne already. They had hit the walls surrounding her and sailed over her head but she knew that if she didn’t get up some sort of protection, or at least distract the creature long enough for her and Ariadne to get away and find a place to hide, then eventually one would hit.

She kept at it, her voice turning shrill as panic began to mingle with the desperation and fear when one of the beams missed her by mere centimeters. The beams were getting closer; the creature obviously either didn’t have a good aim or just didn’t care where it was firing but there was no denying that fact.

“ _Protego!_ ” Hermione shouted again, waving her hand, trying to call upon her magic, trying to do something.

Ariadne was crying and trembling in terror and Hermione didn’t think she was really paying attention to what the time traveling Gryffindor was saying. It was a good thing because Hermione needed to concentrate; she couldn’t afford being asked questions now, not when she was too focused on trying to save their lives.

_I have to save Ariadne. She’s been so nice to me and she’s become a friend in the past three months. I don’t want her to get hurt or die,_ Hermione thought because she could actually, truthfully say that she and Ariadne had definitely become friends in the past three months. It was odd, because the only friends that she had made had been Harry and Ron at Hogwarts and that was only because of the troll incident their first year. To actually make a friend without being in a life-or-death situation was refreshing and Hermione didn’t want to lose that.

Hermione cared about her friends. That was why she always got on Harry and Ron’s cases whenever they slacked off from their studies because she wanted them to do well in their classes. That was also why she was willing to help Harry out whenever he needed it, like with Professor Quirrell in their first year. That was why she was willing to support Harry from the very beginning during the Triwizard Tournament when he had insisted that he hadn’t put his name in the goblet. That was why she’d been willing to break the rules to form Dumbledore’s Army while under Umbridge’s reign to give the friends she’d made a chance to actually learn how to fight. And that was why she was actually shielding Ariadne from the strange creature and trying hard to protect her; she would have done the same for any one of her friends—Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna, to name a few—in a heartbeat.

She had grown up since her first year at Hogwarts, she knew. She had become more willing to bend, and sometimes even break, the rules to help others. She was willing to try to help anyone that she felt needed her help—like the house elves—she was willing to fight to defend her friends whom she cared about, and she would gladly do the same if Voldemort or his Death Eaters ever went after her family.

Even if she was defenseless and couldn’t do anything to fight off the creature that she was faced with, a creature that no book she had ever read had ever mentioned anything about, she wasn’t going to die without, at least, _trying_ to protect her friend.

As a beam of purple light shot toward her, Hermione went to wave her hand, mouth open to shout out the shield charm, when a burst of green light suddenly shot over her head. Her eyes went wide as the emerald green light morphed around her wrist and an icy sensation covered her hand. It wasn’t unpleasant, just surprising, and, as her hand followed through with the wave, a burst of ice shot away from it and morphed into a large rectangular block of ice that caught the purple beam. The purple beam shattered against it as did all the others that struck the thick block of ice in front of her.

Hermione stared, not entirely sure what just happened. She could only stare because she didn’t know how that block of ice had gotten there or how it seemed to be stopping those purple beams from reaching her and Ariadne. She looked down at her hand and gasped when she saw that, while it was still glowing green and the icy sensation hadn’t gone away, a silver bracelet that snaked around her wrist and widened out into an arrowhead on the back of her hand had appeared; at the heart of the arrowhead was a small emerald green cross that pulsated with the same light that surrounded her hand like an aura.

“What...What is this?” she whispered, staring at the bracelet and then a the ice wall in front of her just as it shuddered from another volley of purple beams and then shattered. She yelped and, almost self-consciously, pointed the palm of her glowing hand at the ice shards. They, to her shock, stopped in midair.

She didn’t know what possessed her to push her palm at the shards but, when she did, she was even more shocked when they shot like missiles toward the round white creature and pierced it like hundreds of mini spears. The following explosion sent a shockwave that threw her to the ground over Ariadne.

_What just happened?_ She thought in confusion, gazing at the empty street where the creature had just exploded into dark energy to the bracelet that had suddenly appeared around her wrist—the glow had died down and the icy sensation had faded away—and back to the street.

“H...Hermione?”

Ariadne’s voice brought Hermione out of her confused thoughts and she, deciding that she would think about what just happened later, turned her attention to the blonde girl beneath her.

“Are you okay?” she asked, helping Ariadne sit up.

The blonde girl nodded slowly, though Hermione could see the grief in her red puffy eyes and hear it in her voice as she whispered, “I can’t believe she’s gone...just like that.” She lifted her head, a few stray tears leaking out of her eyes, and turned to the street. “Where’d that creature go?”

“I dunno,” Hermione lied.

“There...There were two more of them. They were...they were Petra, Darrius, and Delphina’s grandmother. I just...I don’t understand,” Ariadne cried.

Hermione didn’t either but she resolved to go to the library the first chance she got. She was going to look into just what those creatures were as well as what happened to cause that bracelet to just form out of nowhere. She needed answers and the library would be her first stop in trying to find those answers.

**. . .**

Four days after they’d arrived in Tanta, Allen and Harry were heading toward the Tahan’s circus tent to witness their performance again. They had gone the past three days, since Amisi had convinced her mom to give them free passes for each day that the Tahan troupe was in the city. How Amisi managed to do that, Allen would never know but he didn’t mind; it gave him and Harry something to do and each day brought with it a different performance so it wasn’t as if it was boring or repetitive.

“I’ve never been to a circus before and now I’m attending a fourth performance,” Harry commented.

“You never have?” Allen asked.

“Nope.” Harry shook his head. “My aunt and uncle never took me while I was growing up.” He didn’t say anything more on the subject so Allen didn’t push.

“Are you enjoying it though?” he asked instead.

“Yeah. It’s enjoyable,” Harry admitted as the two of them neared the circus tent and entered it.

The performance was just as good as the previous ones though, afterwards, Allen wasn’t expecting Amisi to run over to him, still in her clown makeup and acrobat costume. “Mr. Allen! Mr. Harry!” She said as she came to a stop in front of the two boys, beaming happily.

“What is it, Amisi?” Harry asked curiously.

“C’mon. I want you to meet my uncle. He’s really nice, though he didn’t bring auntie with him for some reason,” Amisi said with a pout but then brightened up, grabbed Allen’s left gloved hand and began tugging insistently. “C’mon! C’mon! C’mon!”

Allen chuckled as he allowed himself to be dragged away by the little girl. He glanced over his shoulder at Harry who was snickering but following. “She’s a lot stronger than she looks,” Allen commented casually.

“She sure does look strong,” Harry agreed.

Amisi beamed with pride at that. “Papa’s big and strong and I wanna be like him someday,” she said as they made their way around the tent and toward where Mrs. Tahan, her husband, and her parents were gathered around a man with the same dark-skin and dark hair as the rest of his family.

Allen froze, though Amisi didn’t notice as she let go of his hand and darted toward the newcomer. “Uncle!” She cried while Allen stared in horror at the newcomer.

Or, more importantly, at the _soul_ that was hovering above the newcomer’s head.

His eye had activated and was now glowing red-and-black as he gazed at the soul hovering above Amisi’s uncle’s head even as he, excusing himself from his family, met Amisi halfway and hugged her. The soul was that of a crying woman and he could hear her incoherent pleas as usual. He bit his lip, not wanting to draw attention to what he’d spotted, though his left hand clenched almost self-consciously.

“What is it?” Harry asked.

Allen didn’t respond as he covered his left eye, mostly because the akuma had put Amisi down and she turned to face the white-haired boy. “C’mon, Mr. Allen, Mr. Harry. What’re you doing way over there? Uncle wants to meet you and what’s wrong with your eye?” she said, pouting and gesturing for him and Harry to join her.

Allen smiled as he walked over to join the girl. “Oh, it’s nothing to worry about, Amisi. I just got some dust in it or something,” he said, though he didn’t take his eyes off the akuma as he moved closer.

The akuma tensed as he approached. Allen knew that it would sense his Innocence and it wouldn’t be long before it revealed itself. He was hoping to get close enough to get Amisi out of harm’s way before the akuma revealed itself.

And he also hoped that Harry was prepared to deal with it if he couldn’t get to it himself.

“Oh. I hate when that happens,” Amisi said with a pout and then beamed happily. “I told Uncle that you’re a clown too.”

“Well, I used to be,” Allen said as he crossed the remaining distance, watching as Amisi’s uncle seemed to tremble and then it split in half and the round white balloon-like akuma appeared, causing screams of horror to erupt from the rest of Amisi’s family.

Harry swore but Allen was already in motion. Activating his Innocence, he darted forward and grabbed Amisi, shielding her with both his body and his Innocence as the akuma unleashed a volley of purple beams.

He gritted his teeth as he felt some of the akuma’s bullets sink into his body but, because of his parasitic-type Innocence, he was immune to akuma poisoning. He had found that out within the first few weeks of his training with Cross Marian, though he did need a few minutes to recuperate while the poison was being expelled from his body. He knew that he could make it go away quicker by using his Innocence’s power, according to Cross, but he hadn’t yet figured out just how to do that.

The volley of purple bullets came to a stop but, before the akuma could unleash another volley, Harry darted within Allen’s line of sight, dropping the emerald green shield that surrounded him. He shouted “ _reducto_!” and a burst of emerald green light shot out of his own Innocence weapon, his wand as he called it, and crashed into the akuma. There was an explosion and silence fell upon the gathered people.

Allen gritted his teeth as he released Amisi and scanned her, glad that he didn’t see any pentacles. That meant that he’d managed to shield her from all of the bullets.

“Mr. Allen? Y...You okay? Y...You look hurt,” Amisi whispered, staring at him or, more importantly, at the pentacles that appeared on his skin.

“Allen,” Harry whispered in concern, kneeling beside Allen and staring at the spreading pentacles.

“Don’t worry about it,” Allen assured both his friend and the little girl as his Innocence glowed and the green glow surrounded him, subsequently expelling the akuma poison from his body. “I’m immune to akuma poisoning so I’m fine. I’ll just need a few minutes to recuperate.”

“Thank Merlin,” Harry said with a sigh.

Allen raised an eyebrow at that. That was odd. He normally heard people thank God or something like that but never the mythical wizard from the Arthurian legends—he did learn some things from Mana and from Cross, even if he didn’t actually have that much of an education—so that was a bit odd. He didn’t question it though as his silver-clawed arm returned to normal.

It was only when the gasp of horror and fear sounded behind him that Allen remembered that he had an audience who’d never seen his arm before. He always kept it gloved and his glove had been destroyed when he’d activated his Innocence—since he hadn’t had enough time to take it off—and he wouldn’t have had enough time to put his glove back on and hide it anyway.

“Amisi, get away from him!” Mrs. Tahan shouted suddenly.

Amisi lifted her head in confusion. “But why? He saved my life,” she said.

There was a rush of feet and, a moment later, a confused Amisi was ripped away from Allen by her terrified and frantic mother. “Don’t touch my daughter, you monster!” she shouted, stepping away from Allen, her eyes locked on his arm.

Allen really should be used to those words but the flinch that he let out told him that he wasn’t really.

“He’s no monster. He saved my life,” Amisi protested.

Tahan glared at Allen as the white-haired boy stood up, his white hair shadowing his features as he kept his head lowered. “I don’t want you anywhere near her again, you monster. How dare you trick us? Hiding yourself as a human when you’re no better than that monster that attacked my little girl,” she shouted.

“How can you say that?” Harry suddenly shouted, causing Allen to lift his head and stare at Harry in shock. The black-haired boy, his Innocence deactivated and stuffed into his pocket, stalked forward and glared at Tahan. “Allen saved your daughter’s life! He’s no monster. Just because his arm is different does not mean that he’s a monster. All it does is make him unique, different.”

“He’s nothing more than a freak!” The mother shouted.

“He’s not a freak! His arm is not something that he could control anymore than I could control the scar on my forehead. He was born with that arm and that wasn’t his fault in any way.”

“That’s the Devil’s work. He’s a cursed freak who should’ve died when he was born!”

“How dare you say something like that about the very person who saved your daughter’s life? Does that mean nothing to you? He put his life on the line just to keep your daughter safe and you have the nerve to say that he should have died when he was born? You have the nerve to call him a freak and a monster in spite of what he did? You condemn him for something out of his control and ignore all that he’s done, what he put on the line for your daughter. If anyone here’s a freak, it’s you!” Harry all but shouted out those last words while Allen stared at Harry, surprised when he felt his eyes grow wet.

He raised his right hand to his eyes and felt the tears. _I’m crying?_ He hasn’t cried in such a long time, not since Mana died, but he knew that these weren’t tears of grief or anger or anything like that. He knew that he was crying because this was the first time in his entire life that _anyone_ has ever verbally defended him like Harry had just done.

It was a shock. Allen didn’t think there was anyone in the world who would actually do something like that for him, for the boy with the deformed arm, and especially not someone that he’d only known for three months.

The tears that were falling from his eyes were tears of shock and gratitude. Shock that someone had actually done what he never thought anyone would ever do for him and gratitude for the very same reason.

Harry stalked over to join Allen. “C’mon, Allen. We’ve overstayed our welcome,” he said and, with one more glare at the Tahans, he gently grabbed Allen’s arm and guided him away from the troupe.

Allen said nothing, just walked mutely after Harry, still attempting to get his emotions and his thoughts under control since Harry’s actions had really thrown him for a loop.

“Mr. Allen!” A shout sounded followed by an “Amisi, stay away from him” that must have been ignored because, seconds later, Allen felt arms wrap around his legs. He looked down to find Amisi gazing up at him.

“Mama’s wrong,” Amisi said firmly. “Don’t be sad ‘bout what Mama said. She’s wrong.”

And that was another surprise but he just smiled softly down at the little girl. “I’m not sad,” he said softly.

“Then why’re you crying?” Amisi said in confusion while her mother frantically ran toward her.

Allen didn’t respond as Mrs. Tahan grabbed Amisi and yanked her into her arms, causing the little girl to whine in protest, and give him another vicious glare. “I thought I said not to touch my daughter,” she hissed.

“Did you not hear a single thing I just said?” Harry exclaimed in exasperation.

Allen ignored both Tahan’s words and Harry’s response as he turned around.

“Thank you, Mr. Allen,” Amisi called.

Allen paused. “You’re welcome, Amisi,” he said and walked away, only half aware of Harry falling into step beside him.

**. . .**

Harry’s blood was still boiling as he fell into step alongside Allen, not so much by Mrs. Tahan’s callous words but also by Allen’s nonchalant reaction as if he was used to such words. It brought to mind his words from four days earlier, about how getting called a monster or having everyone say his arm was the Devil’s work was something that he’d dealt with since he was born. And his anger was also because Mrs. Tahan had reminded him of his own relatives who called him freak and other insulting names all the time because of the magic he’d been born with.

_We really do have oddly similar childhoods and yet you still seem to be affected by it,_ Harry thought, gazing at Allen who hadn’t said a word since he’d responded to the little girl Amisi’s expression of gratitude. Harry couldn’t begin to figure out what was going on in the white-haired boy’s mind.

He had jumped in to defend Allen as quickly as he had because Mrs. Tahan wasn’t being reasonable, and was being rather ungrateful, toward the boy who’d just saved her daughter’s life. She didn’t seem to care about that; all she cared about was that Allen didn’t look like a normal human and that gave her the right to call him a monster. It was sickening that such a thing actually happened.

Harry had done for Allen what he wished anyone would have done for him whenever he was called a freak or insulted by his cousin or his aunt and uncle. He knew that words hurt a lot more than most people would think; Hermione had been the one to tell him that words impacted someone just as strongly as physical wounds and, more than physical wounds, they left scars that could take years to heal.

It was clear by Allen’s reaction that he’d been scarred very badly by the words of those around him who only saw him as a monster and not as the human boy that he was. So scarred that he wasn’t even affected by those words anymore.

Harry snorted inwardly. _Hermione would be proud that I actually remembered something from her lecture about this topic that day,_ he thought.

And it wasn’t as if he wasn’t carrying his own scars around, not just the physical ones from his relatives or Voldemort, but also the mental ones from their callous words towards him as well. And it wasn’t as if his relatives were the only ones who ever insulted him constantly, Snape was a prime example of someone else who did the same thing.

Snape just hated him because he reminded him of his father, as Harry had found out during those Occlumency lessons he had with the Potions Master in the months prior to the Department of Mysteries incident.

His relatives hated him for his magic.

Both of them treated him like crap because of that hatred and because of something he didn’t really have any control over either.

He couldn’t control the fact that he had magic and he couldn’t control the fact that his dad was a bully. And yet neither of them cared about that fact; they only saw what they wanted to see and refused to look beyond what they wanted to see.

Harry wasn’t stupid after all, contrary to what others—i.e. Snape and the Slytherins—would think. He was smart enough to put those pieces together, to see that the way his relatives treated him and the way Snape treated him were because they refused to see him as just a regular boy who wanted to have a normal life.

It had taken him years, and much talking with Hermione and Ron and seeing the interactions between the Weasley family, to realize that how Snape and his relatives treated him was wrong, and that he was _not_ the one who was at fault.

A small part of him that Harry barely noticed anymore still didn’t really believe that.

Based on all of that though, Allen was more like him than Harry had thought before in that he just let those people treat him like that and not bat an eyelash, stating or acting like he was used to it and then going on with his life. And Harry didn’t think that was right.

The two of them reached the inn and headed inside. Once they were in the privacy of their room, Harry removed his Innocence-embedded wand and rested it on the nightstand as he sat down, running a tired hand through his hair. He knew that the reason why he was so tired was because he’d used two spells back to back and hadn’t yet figured out why using spells powered by his Innocence took so much energy from him

Hermione probably would have figured it out already.

Harry smiled sadly, wishing, not for the first time, that his intelligent bookworm friend was there.

“Harry?”

At the sound of Allen’s voice, Harry turned to him to find him sitting on the bed, studying him with inquisitive silver eyes. “Yeah?” he said.

“Why’d you do it?” Allen asked.

“Hmm?” Harry blinked at him.

“Why did you defend me like that?” Allen asked softly.

“Why wouldn’t I? You’re my friend, Allen, and no one deserves to be treated like that just because of something you couldn’t control, even more so because you did protect Amisi from getting killed.”

Allen was silent. “No one has ever done that for me before. Thank you,” he said quietly but the gratitude in his voice was sincere.

“No one?” Harry asked. “Not even Mana?”

Allen shook his head. “He supported me in his own way but never did he verbally defend me like you did. He just went out of his way to try to make me laugh and then gave me the home, even if we were always moving around, and family that a part of me always wanted,” he said. “So I suppose you and Mana are the only ones who ever supported me like that before.”

“What about Master?” Even after three months, Harry still didn’t fell comfortable calling Cross “Master” but, since he was training him to be an Exorcist, it was more appropriate, and he had the odd feeling that Cross would prefer being called that rather than by his name.

He pushed that thought out of his mind, forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand.

Allen gave him a deadpanned look as if he was stupid for asking him that kind of question.

“Right, stupid question,” Harry admitted since the day Cross actually defended Allen, or Harry for that matter, from anything, even verbal insults, was the day that Harry stopped loving Quidditch.

“It’s nice though,” Allen said, the deadpan look vanishing from his eyes as he laid down on the bed, folding his arms behind his head. “Having someone see me as a human rather than a monster or a freak and be willing to defend me like that so, again, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Allen,” Harry said. He was silent for a long moment and, before he realized what he was saying, he found himself talking again. “I understand how it feels to be seen as a freak rather than a human.”

Allen lifted his head and gazed at him in confusion and Harry looked away. He didn’t know why he’d said that but he knew he couldn’t take back what he said. He’d never told anyone this, not even Hermione and Ron, and he wasn’t entirely sure why he’d said such a thing to Allen.

“You do?” Allen asked hesitantly as if he wasn’t sure whether he should say anything in response to that or not.

“My aunt and uncle saw me as a freak rather than a human because of something I couldn’t control,” Harry said before he realized what he was saying and, before he could stop himself, he found himself telling Allen everything about that subject. He didn’t know what had caused the dam to burst open but he couldn’t stop the flow of words that came out of his lips.

“They never treated me like I was their nephew. I was just the ungrateful burden left on their doorstep after my parents were killed and they went to great lengths to keep me reminded of that fact, including never really using my name. I was either boy or freak to them; I only knew what my name was because my aunt Petunia had mentioned it once but I was never called by that name by my relatives. It was always boy or freak.” He broke off and felt his cheeks heat up in shame and embarrassment as he lowered his head; he hadn’t meant to say all of that, and still wasn’t entirely sure what had caused him to reveal that about himself.

And yet…

Maybe he’d said all of that because he knew Allen wouldn’t judge him simply because he’d gone through something similar. He realized that he’d revealed that about himself because he knew Allen would understand better than anyone else and wouldn’t give him pity because of that understanding.

If there was one thing that Harry didn’t want, it was someone’s pity.

He felt the bed sink beside him and lifted his head to look at Allen who was gazing at him with quiet sympathy in his silver eyes. And Harry didn’t snap at him or tell him that he didn’t want his pity because he knew that wasn’t pity; Allen could easily sympathize with Harry’s words because he’d gone through something similar himself.

“We both had a messed up childhood,” Harry said finally with a bitter chuckle.

Allen nodded in agreement.

Harry sighed and decided that, while he still didn’t know why he’d told Allen about that part of his childhood, he didn’t care. It was out and there was no taking it back so there was no point in worrying about it.

“Do you want some advice, Harry?” Allen asked suddenly.

“What kind of advice?” Harry asked.

Allen gave him a small sad smile. “Something Mana told me right before he died. No matter what happens, keep moving forward, keep walking, never stop,” he said. “I’ve lived by that advice since Mana died and it’s helped me to move on from my messed up childhood as you call it.”

_Keep moving forward, keep walking, never stop…_

Harry found himself wondering if he could take that advice to heart himself and finally move on from his far from ideal childhood.

A loud growl sounded, breaking the silence that had fallen on the two teenagers and Harry blinked at Allen whose cheeks heated up. “Was that your stomach or did a thunderstorm roll in while I wasn’t paying attention?” Harry asked.

Allen smiled sheepishly. “Well, I did use quite a bit of energy today,” he said.

Harry stood up. “C’mon, let’s get you something to eat before you start eating the pillows or something,” he said.

Allen snorted in amusement and the two of them left the room and headed for the dining hall.

As he walked, Harry felt much lighter for some reason. It was as if part of the burden that refused to leave his shoulders despite being a century in the past had suddenly lifted.

And, as he glanced at the white-haired boy walking at his side and chatting about his favorite foods—his favorite was mitarashi dango, a Japanese dish according to him—Harry found that the revelation of their similar childhoods had brought them closer.

**. . .**

_Next Time: The Forests of Madagascar_

**. . .**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there is chapter 2! I am grateful to the two people who gave me Kudos and the two people who commented. Thank you so much for your support and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Reviews, kudos, and whatever else you'd like to give are much appreciated.


	3. The Forests of Madagascar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry continues his training, unorthodox though it is, with Cross and Allen and finds out another truth about Allen's past. Meanwhile, Sirius learns about the Earl of Millennium and Ron has an encounter with the Earl and witnesses the power of the Innocence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here is chapter three. I hope you like it and reviews, kudos, and anything else you'd like to leave are much appreciated.

**3**

**The Forests of Madagascar**

Sirius Black sighed as he trudged down the darkened streets of Gaillac, the French town he’d found out six months ago was where he and Ron ended up in after falling through the Veil. They’d been stuck in 1896 for six months already and were nowhere near close to finding out how to get back to their own time. It didn’t help that the darkness that shrouded the city made it practically impossible to find the edge; he couldn’t leave if he wanted to because he kept getting turned around.

Not only that but no one seemed to know what had caused the sudden darkness, only saying that it started nine months earlier. If there were witches and wizards in the area then Sirius might have thought that they had something to do with it or, at least, knew what had caused it. But Sirius hadn’t caught sight of any wizards or witches in the area nor had he found any magical places and he was pretty sure he’d searched the entire town.

He also hadn’t found any sign of his godson and Hermione.

Alvin and Quinton helped him search but were now saying that if his godson and Hermione were in the city then they should have found some clue as to where they were. At the very least, since everyone carried around lanterns to navigate through the dark, someone should have spotted them in the past six months.

Sirius hated to admit it but they did have a point.

He also had to be careful since he hadn’t realized that the town was on the coast until he almost walked off a cliff. The darkness didn’t help because it even extended out to the sea and no sunlight could penetrate it. It was really weird, even by the standards of someone who was born and raised in the Wizarding World.

He walked into Alvin’s home as he pulled himself out of his thoughts and his host looked up from where he was sitting in an armchair. “Oh, Sirius, welcome back,” he greeted him. “Anything?”

Sirius sighed in frustration. “Not a damn thing,” he said. “I don’t wanna give up or nothing like that but I think you’re right and they ain’t here.”

“So where could they be?” Ron asked, lifting his head from where he was playing chess with Quinton.

“I dunno. I wish I did,” Sirius said, unable to keep the worry out of his voice as he thought about his godson. He’d already failed to protect Harry once before, when he’d foolishly gone after Pettigrew rather than taking care of his godson, and he hated that he might have failed to protect him again.

He honestly had no clue how everyone had gotten separated as it was. They had all been holding onto each other when they fell into that misty darkness beyond the Veil so one would think that they would’ve ended up in the same place. But that hadn’t happened.

Of course, the Animagus was also thinking about Remus and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix as well as the rest of Harry’s friends back in the Department of Mysteries. He didn’t know what happened and doubted he would ever know what happened until he got back to his own time. Time magic was not something that he wanted to mess around with because it was so complex and could easily have very bad results.

“I’m sure they’ll be all right,” Alvin said reassuringly.

“Though didn’t you say that Harry is known for running headlong into trouble?” Quinton said with a tilt of his head.

“Not helping,” Sirius huffed. “And it’s not so much he runs headlong into trouble, it’s more trouble always seems to find him. And that just makes me feel even more worried!” The Animagus groaned as he flopped unceremoniously into an armchair.

“Hey, maybe he ended up with Hermione,” Ron suggested.

“I hope so ‘cause that’d mean we wouldn’t have to track both of ‘em down. Not that we can do that now,” Sirius grumbled. He hated not being able to do anything; he hated waiting more than anything, especially when his godson was possibly in trouble.

“Why don’t you help me cook dinner, Sirius? It’d take your mind off this for a little while,” Alvin offered, standing up from the armchair he’d been sitting in.

“Uh, are you sure? The last time I helped you cook, I set the stove on fire,” Sirius said with a raised an eyebrow, and a faint sheepish smile, as he recalled that disastrous attempt at helping out around the house as payment for Alvin letting him and Ron stay there. He didn’t want to be a freeloader after all and, no matter how many people—i.e. Snivellus and, sometimes, Remus—called him irresponsible, he felt that he had matured a little bit during his time in Azkaban. Granted, he’d been focusing more on keeping his sanity than maturing but those two ended up coinciding a little bit.

Not a whole lot but Sirius was positive he’d made _some_ progress in the right direction.

Alvin chuckled. “I’ll keep you away from the stove. Do you think you can slice up some carrots for me for the stew I’m making?” he said.

“That I can do,” Sirius said. Not being able to use magic, since he was around muggles, was something he wasn’t used to but there were some things he’d gotten the hang of without the use of magic. Chopping up vegetables was like that, especially since he’d learned how to do something similar in Potions; even if he didn’t like Potions, he had managed to pick up something.

He doubted he’d ever be as good as the greasy bat Snivellus but, frankly, he didn’t want to be anything like that bastard.

He stood up and followed Alvin into the kitchen before pulling out the carrots and, after washing them as he’d been told to do during the first few weeks he’d stayed with Alvin, he began chopping them up.

As he worked, he found himself speaking again. “Thanks again for letting Ron and I stay here,” he said.

“It’s no problem,” Alvin said, turning on the stove as he started working on the stew. “I wish things would calm down in the streets though.”

Sirius nodded in agreement. During the six months that he and Ron had been staying with Alvin in Gaillac, they’d learned that crime was a common thing because criminals had the cover of darkness aiding them. That meant there were a lot of thefts in the area and even some murders, though those weren’t as common as theft. However, most of the places that were robbed were stores and people’s homes. Alvin was worried that the criminals would try to rob his home.

He told Sirius that he would just let it happen because he didn’t want to endanger his son’s life and Sirius could readily understand that.

He had also secretly cast a few protection charms that he knew around Alvin’s house during the night when everyone was asleep to ensure that the criminals would avoid it. He had to renew them every night but it was worth it to keep those who’d helped him safe.

At least those types of spells still worked because none of the other spells that Sirius used, like _lumos_ or the Point Me charm, seemed to work in the darkness and he honestly had no clue why. He supposed that the darkness, somehow, stopped the magic from working or something like that.

“Anything else you need me to do?” he asked as he pushed the carrots toward Alvin who took them and added them to the stew.

“Some celery would be nice too,” he said.

“Got it,” Sirius said and, after getting some celery stalks, washing them, and cutting off the ends, he began dicing them for the stew as well.

The sound of breaking glass jolted both of them out of their thought and Sirius started in surprise, nearly slicing off a finger as a result. Not letting go of the knife, he darted into the living room with Alvin just behind him; both of them skidded to a halt when they saw three figures standing in the living room.

“Back off, you two, or these kids are gonna get it,” the first figure said, pointing his gun, a muggle weapon that Sirius had never really learned much about though he knew what it looked like at Quinton’s head.

“We want no trouble,” Alvin said, holding up his hands.

_Did my protection charms fall without me noticing?_ Sirius thought and wracked his brain before cursing inwardly when he realized that he’d gotten back to the house so late last night that he’d forgotten to recast them. He mentally smacked himself and quickly tried to think of a way to get Ron and Quinton away from those men without them getting hurt; he’d never forgive himself if they got hurt because he hadn’t recast the protection charms.

“Then don’t move. We’re gonna take what we want and then leave and you ain’t gonna do nothing to stop us or we’re gonna kill these brats,” the man in the lead said coolly.

Quinton looked terrified and Ron looked scared and confused, his eyes flickering to the gun that was held to his head. Ron had even less experience with the muggle world than Sirius had and they were both lost because the late 1800s was far different from the late 1900s where they came from. Even if the Wizarding World still acted as if they were still in the 1800s, there were some things about the 1896 muggle world that practically all purebloods knew nothing about.

Sirius only knew as much as he did because he did spend a little bit of his time in the muggle world during his rebellious stage before he’d been disowned and blasted off the family tree by his mother and before his incarceration in Azkaban.

Ron didn’t have that kind of knowledge.

“Yes, of course. Take what you want. We won’t stop you,” Alvin said, gazing in fear at his son who was shaking in terror.

“Stop moving, brat,” the man holding the gun to his head snarled.

“Please, don’t hurt him,” Alvin begged, terror in his eyes.

“Shut up,” the man said and gestured to the third person in the little group who immediately began scouring the little house looking for anything of value. He came back with pouches of gold coins that Sirius recalled Alvin calling guineas.

“This is all I could find,” he said.

“How much?”

“100 guineas.”

“That’s it?” The man’s lips pulled back in a snarl as he glared at Alvin. “You must have something more than that!”

“T...That’s all I have. I swear,” Alvin said.

“Tch. Fine. Let’s go.” He shoved Quinton forward and Ron was given the same treatment before the three robbers exited the same way that they came in, through the broken living room window.

Quinton collapsed sobbing into his dad’s arms while Sirius moved to join Ron, putting down the knife he didn’t realize he’d still been holding until then. “You okay, kid?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Ron said and frowned. “I thought you cast some protection spells over this place.”

“I forgot to recast them tonight. I’m gonna go on up and do that now,” Sirius said and, turning around and sidestepping around Alvin and Quinton, darted toward the stairs of the small two-story house.

Once he was on the top floor, he walked into the guest room that had once belonged to Quinton’s elder sister, who’d apparently lost her life when the darkness had first covered the town, but was now being used by Sirius and Ron. Once in the relative privacy of that room, Sirius pulled out his wand and, moving it in a specific pattern, he began murmuring the long string of Latin words under his breath, his wand glowing as he did so.

The spell took effect, causing the house to glow momentarily before it faded away. Thankfully, the glow was so fast that no one would see it or, at least, hadn’t yet in the six months since Sirius had started doing this.

Putting his wand away, he walked out of the room and was about to head downstairs when he saw something resting on the floor in front of Quinton’s room. Walking over, he picked it up and realized that it was a journal that was open to a page that was dated nine months ago.

He was about to close it when his eyes landed on one of the lines.

... _darkness’s fault that she died…_

Sirius blinked and read back a few paragraphs, realizing that the journal belonged to Quinton and he seemed to be talking about the loss of his sister. He seemed to be blaming the darkness for his sister’s death but it was what he’d wrote after that line that intrigued Sirius.

_This fat guy came to talk to me after_ _Simone died and he was really creepy looking. He had this huge grin on his face that I’m pretty sure wasn’t natural and was carrying around an umbrella with a pumpkin on its tip. It was weird._

_Anyway,_ _I asked him who he was, since Papa told me not to trust strangers, and he said that he was known as the Millennium Earl and that he could bring my big sister back to life. I wanted to see her again but, before I could do anything, Papa showed up and that earl person just disappeared into midair._

Sirius closed the journal as he finished reading that page, not wanting to invade Quinton’s privacy more than he already had but curious about just who that Millennium Earl was. But saying that he could bring someone back to life? He was positive that it would required a lot of dark magic to bring someone back to life and they wouldn’t really be living; Voldemort had been brought back to life but he, according to Harry’s description, didn’t look human anymore. And, of course, there were also inferi, who were basically just reanimated corpses.

He didn’t know what to think about someone who’d offered a grieving brother the chance to bring his sister back to life. Contrary to what Snape seemed to think, Sirius wasn’t stupid and knew that there had to be a catch. Of course, even though he hated to admit it, that was the Slytherin side of him since Slytherins always thought there was a catch because they trusted no one. It was a cunning move to trick someone into thinking that they could bring someone they loved back to life, a Slytherin move, but there was always a price to be paid.

Nothing was free after all.

He decided to not only think about what he’d learned later but also just leave the journal where he’d found it, as he didn’t want Quinton to jump to the conclusion that he’d invaded his privacy, correct though it was. So he dropped the journal on the ground in front of Quinton’s room and made his way back downstairs.

**. . .**

Harry swatted at the bugs that would not leave him alone and sighed, resting his back against the tall tree next to him before pulling out his water bottle. He took a long drink of it and turned to Allen who was splashing some water from a nearby stream onto his face. Another three months had gone by and, after learning about Allen’s difficult childhood and revealing a bit about his own difficult childhood, Harry had grown closer to Allen.

Closer to the point that Allen had become another one of his best friends.

Cross, on the other hand...not so much.

“Why the bloody hell are we hiking through the middle of a forest in Madagascar?” Harry asked.

“Because I said so, brat, that’s why,” Cross, who was sitting nearby and polishing his gun, Judgment, said with a snort. “Yo, Idiot Apprentice, are you done yet?”

“Yes, Master,” Allen said, walking over to join them and sitting down beside Harry.

“Good. There’s a temple ‘bout two miles head. That’s where you two are going,” Cross said, pointing in the direction directly ahead of them. “Tim’ll lead ya to ensure you don’t get lost.”

“Why are we going there?” Harry asked.

“For training, of course,” Cross said. “Now go. You’ve got ‘till sundown. Best get moving.”

Sundown was only an hour away and they’d been hiking through the forest almost nonstop for the past three hours. Harry’s legs ached and he groaned but forced himself to his feet since he knew that if he protested, he’d just be on the receiving end of that mallet that Cross kept somewhere on his person.

He still had no idea just how the Exorcist General kept that damn mallet hidden or where for that matter.

Nonetheless, he’d made the mistake of protesting about two months ago, when he and Allen had met up with their master in Cairo, and had been hit upside the head with that mallet. According to Allen, he’d been out for two hours and Cross had left during that time, forcing them to track him down yet again.

And avoid another set of debt collectors.

Harry really had no clue as to how Cross managed to wrack up so many debts in such a short period of time.

Frankly, though, in the last six months, Harry realized that he was probably better off not knowing.

Allen also got to his feet. “Yes, Master,” he said and, grabbing his water bottle, began heading down the path and Harry quickly darted after him. The golden golem, Timcampy, flew ahead of them; he seriously reminded Harry of a snitch, except that he was larger and had sharp teeth as Harry had been unfortunate enough to find out when he made the mistake of poking him.

“So why do you think we’re being sent to this temple?” Harry asked, falling into step beside Allen.

“If I know Master, it’s probably infested with akuma or something like that. At least he didn’t literally push us into the middle of a large group of akuma like he did when we were in the Sahara,” Allen mused.

“That sucked,” Harry grumbled. That had happened only a week after Harry had agreed to become Cross’s second apprentice and that had been one of the times where Cross had kicked him outside while there were akuma present and told him to deal with it. Except that, this time, both he and Allen had been sent rolling down a sand dune into a large group of akuma that had arrived upon sensing the presence of four pieces of Innocence.

“Yeah, so this isn’t as bad as that,” Allen said. “We should get moving. We only have so much time left after all.”

“Right.”

The two started to jog down the path, jumping over upturned roots and ducking under low hanging branches until Timcampy came to a stop in front of them. Allen skidded to a halt under him and Harry joined him; both of them exchanged matching grimaces when they saw at least twenty, possibly more, akuma surrounding and firing on the temple in front of them.

“At least they’re all level one,” Allen said, the red-and-black glow in his left eye activated—Harry still didn’t know how Allen had gotten that cursed eye that allowed him to see the tormented souls of the akuma—as he removed his white glove and murmured, “Innocence, activate.” His left arm morphed into his silver-clawed arm.

“Still, that’s a heck of a lot of enemies,” Harry said, pulling out his wand and murmuring, “Innocence, activate,” and watching as his wand began glowing a bright emerald green color.

“Yeah,” Allen said, studying the akuma, his left eye glowing red-and-black as he gazed, with pity in his eyes, at the space above the akuma. Harry couldn’t see the souls that were attached to the akuma but he knew that Allen could.

Even though he didn’t know the story behind what had caused that, he didn’t push. If Allen wanted to tell him then he would.

Harry may have been nosy enough to pursue some secrets, such as the Philosopher’s Stone and the Chamber of Secrets in his first and second year, but this was different, mostly because it was a secret one of his friends was harboring.

Besides, it wasn’t as if Harry wasn’t keeping his own secrets after all; he’d told no one that he was a wizard from a hundred years into the future after all.

He’d pretty much given up on all hope of not making changes to the timeline simply because his very presence was already making changes and there was really nothing he could do about that. In truth, his inability to do anything to stop the changes he was unintentionally making had come about when the Innocence fragment Cross found in the town where they first met had chosen him to be its accomodator.

Allen led the way toward the temple, leaping into the air and crashing his silver-clawed hand into one of the akuma before swiftly leaping to the next one. As the large crowd of akuma turned toward them, Harry shouted out “ _reducto_ ” and darted off to another enemy when one of the akuma shattered. He cast the spell again on another enemy, panting as he did so.

He caught sight of a blast of purple beams that shot toward him and quickly cast the shield charm, watching as the bullets shattered against the emerald green shield. As he dropped the shield, briefly noting that using the shield charm didn’t take as much energy as using the reducto curse did.

As the akuma in front of him fired again, he quickly cast the first defensive spell he’d ever learned to cast well, other than the shield charm. “ _Expelliarmus!_ ”

The emerald green light shot forward and crashed into the purple beam, deflecting it into the temple.

“ _Expelliarmus!_ ” he shouted again, this time throwing the charm at the akuma before it could fire off its next volley of purple beams. The spell crashed into it and threw it backwards to where it flew into another akuma and both went tumbling into the temple.

Over the last six months, Harry had experimented with all of the spells that he did know in order to see just how they would affect the akuma. He’d found out that the disarming charm reacted like a repelling charm or a _flippendo_ spell and threw the akuma backwards, _stupefy_ caused the akuma to freeze in midair for a few seconds, and _reducto_ and _diffindo_ were the most offensive spells in his arsenal since they were the only ones that Harry had found, that he could cast, that actually destroyed the akuma.

“ _Diffindo_!” he shouted and slashed his wand through the air, sending another burst of emerald light at another akuma, slicing it neatly in half before diving out of the way and ducking behind a tree to avoid another volley from another akuma.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to try and get his breath back and peered around the tree, watching as Allen leapt from one destroyed akuma to another. One akuma raised its gun barrels, about to fire at Allen while he was dealing with another akuma and Harry pointed his wand at that akuma.

“ _Stupefy!_ ” he shouted and sent the blast of emerald light—that was another thing he’d noticed; all of his spells had taken on an emerald green color, even when they weren’t that color originally—at the akuma. It froze in midair and Allen, flipping backwards away from the akuma he’d just destroyed slashed downward to cut though the frozen akuma.

“Thanks,” he called to Harry as he jumped for a new enemy.

Harry didn’t say anything in response to that as he darted back onto the battlefield, a new rush of adrenaline flowing through him, and cast more _diffindos_ and _reductos_ at the enemy, only half paying attention to the decrease in his energy. He would probably have to rest for several hours after this fight because he was using so much energy, and still didn’t know just why he was losing more energy than normal Exorcists with equip-type Innocences did.

The numbers of akuma dwindled until there were only about five left. Harry was at his limit and, leaning against the doors to the temple with an emerald green shield around him, watched as Allen jumped into the air.

“ _Cross Grave!_ ” Allen shouted as his Innocence glowed brightly and glowing crosses shot out of the air to crash into the five remaining akuma and they exploded in a violent burst of dark energy.

_Whoa, I didn’t know Allen could do that,_ Harry thought, gazing around but, when he didn’t see any signs of anymore akuma, he released the shield charm around him.

Pushing away from the door he’d been leaning against, he tilted his head up, smiling in amusement when he saw that the younger white-haired boy had landed on the roof of the temple. “Any others?” he called up.

“No,” Allen called back and Harry watched as his younger companion hopped down from the roof, using the few window frames that remained on the temple’s walls as stepping stones before landing lightly like a cat at Harry’s side. He looked exhausted though as his silver-clawed arm shrank back to normal.

“I didn’t know you could take out more than one akuma at once,” Harry said, deactivating his Innocence and tucking the wand away.

“I only just learned it but I haven’t exactly figured out how to not use too much energy while using Cross Grave so I can only do it occasionally,” Allen said, running a hand through his messy white hair.

“Not bad, brats,” a voice said and the two of them turned to find Cross striding into the clearing with Timcampy, who’d vanished at some point before the fight began, resting on top of his hat. “Idiot Apprentice, you need more control over the amount of energy you give to that last attack of yours. Brat, you just need to find out why you keep losing so much energy even though your Innocence is an equip-type.”

“Yeah, well you haven’t been much help in that department either, Master,” Harry shot back.

“Watch your cheek, brat,” Cross said with a snort as he strode past them. “Wait out here.” He disappeared into temple and Allen and Harry looked at each other, both of them wondering just what was happening.

Cross came out a few minutes later, tucking a glowing green cube into the pocket of his traveling cloak and Allen sweatdropped, leaning toward Harry. “Did Master actually do his job again?” he whispered.

“I think so,” Harry murmured back since he’d learned that Cross rarely ever actually did his job for the Black Order or the Vatican and so he was surprised that the Exorcist General was actually doing his job of finding Innocence.

“Is the world ending?” Allen wondered.

“I don’t see fire or brimstone so I don’t think so.”

“You could have fooled me.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Cross asked, narrowing his visible eye at them.

“Nothing, Master,” Allen said.

Cross snorted and strode off, not even looking back to see if his two apprentices were following him.

Despite being exhausted, Harry and Allen trudged after Cross, knowing full well that Cross was the only one who likely knew his way out of those forests and neither of them wanted to get lost.

**. . .**

Ron shifted his grip on the bag of groceries that he was carrying as he followed Quinton down the street. Three days had gone by since Quinton’s house had been robbed by those thieves but they’d gotten over it pretty quickly, saying that it was common since the darkness descended.

Ron knew that he was having a bit of a tough time adjusting to the muggle world that he suddenly found himself in; he couldn’t do magic because of the presence of muggles and so that meant that he had to do almost everything the muggle way. It was a good thing that Quinton showed him how to do things like wash clothes, do dishes by hand, and cook a few things; he had assumed that Ron was some sort of rich folk who never had to do anything for himself.

Ron found it ironic that Quinton would think he was rich, when he was probably the poorest wizarding family in the Wizarding World.

He had just let Quinton believe what he wanted to believe since he couldn’t tell him the truth—not only was revealing magic existed a big no-no but Sirius insisted that the less Quinton and Alvin knew about where they came from the better—but it wasn’t as if Quinton didn’t treat him badly. He treated him normally; they were able to play chess matches together and, though Quinton was frustrated that he couldn’t seem to win against Ron, they enjoyed themselves.

Nonetheless, thinking about his family brought with it a sense of homesickness. Even though Ron, at times, found it unbearable to live with so many siblings, since it meant that there were times that his siblings would get more attention than him, he did miss them. He didn’t even know if they were all right; Ginny had been with them in the Department of Mysteries when those Death Eaters had attacked and Ron had no idea if she was all right or not.

Or the rest of his family for that matter. His mum was probably worried sick about him, if she knew that he was gone, if she didn’t automatically think he was dead. He hoped that wasn’t the case since he did love his mum and didn’t want her to be sad,.

“Hey, Ron, you okay?” Quinton asked, bringing Ron back to the present.

“Huh?” Ron blinked at him, not realizing he’d gotten so distracted by his thoughts that he’d stopped walking and had been staring out into space for the past couple of minutes.

“You were just staring at the sky for a couple of minutes. You okay?” Quinton asked again.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. I was...just thinking,” Ron said.

“Oh. You sound sad.”

“Yeah, I just miss my family. I don’t even know if they’re all right.”

“Oh.” Sadness reflected off Quinton’s face in the light of his lantern. “Yeah, I miss my big sister too. It’s been nine months since she was killed but I still miss her every day.” He sighed and turned his gaze to the sidewalk ahead of him, his brow furrowed slightly as his gazed landed on a short alley beyond which was the small cemetery lit up by the lanterns that the townspeople had placed on the ground.

“I’m going to go visit Simone’s grave,” Quinton said finally.

“Um, okay,” Ron said and followed Quinton as he led the way down the alley and toward the cemetery. Both Sirius and Quinton’s father had insisted that they always travel in pairs now that the amount of crime had spiked in the past three days and, while Ron didn’t feel that comfortable in cemeteries—he’d only ever visited one once before when his mum had gone to visit the graves of her brothers Gideon and Fabian—he supposed it was better to be safe.

Ron did have his wand if something happened and it was necessary to protect himself and Quinton after all.

He supposed that he didn’t mind hanging out with Quinton since the kid was nice and reminded him of Neville a little and they got along well. That was probably a good thing; the last six months probably wouldn’t have been as good as they were if Quinton was like Malfoy because then they’d always be at each other’s throats.

The two of them entered the cemetery and Quinton navigated his way around the graves toward one that lay in the back of the cemetery. Ron could hear the splash of water against the rocks, telling him that the cemetery was near the coast that the town rested next to. There was a mix of new graves with fresh flowers resting on them and old ones covered with wilted flowers or just not touched at all. In the past half a year, Ron had found out that at least five people had been killed by criminals before the criminals disappeared without a trace; the darkness providing them the cover they needed to escape.

The more Ron thought about it and about the amount of crime in the area, the more he realized that the muggle world wasn’t that much different from the Wizarding World. They still had criminals that did bad things, they still had good people who took care of others, they still had ways to do things that witches and wizards normally used magic to do.

_Not that other purebloods would even care,_ Ron thought. He only cared because his best friend, and secret crush, was a muggleborn witch and his dad enjoyed researching and playing around with gadgets that came from the muggle world.

His family were called blood traitors because of that but Ron found that he really didn’t care. It wasn’t as if he wanted to be like the other purebloods, bigots who believed in the superiority of those with pure magical blood, like the Malfoys.

Nonetheless, while the world he and Sirius had found themselves stuck in was clearly muggle, thee were some things that made Ron wonder if they were magical in nature, such as the darkness. It had to be a spell of some sort; that was the only thing that Ron could think of to explain why it was so dark and why the darkness had lasted that long.

_I wonder if Hermione would know what sort of spell would do this and last as long as it has,_ Ron thought curiously and cursed when he nearly tripped over a lantern.

He managed to sidestep it and was, for an instant, thankful for the darkness since it hid his ears going as red as his hair out of embarrassment.

“You okay?” Quinton asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Ron said.

Quinton hummed and turned to the grave that he’d come to a stop in front of. He knelt down and, in the light of the lantern Quinton rested beside it, Ron read the name inscribed on the headstone.

_Simone Leroy. August 12, 1868—January 6, 1896. A loving daughter and big sister._

Quinton lowered his head. “I miss you, Simone. I know it’s been nine months but I still can’t help but miss you. I wish I knew what happened and I wish that the person who did this to you would be caught,” he said quietly.

Ron, realizing that he was intruding on a private moment, backed away to give the boy some more privacy. He may not have much but even he wasn’t rude enough to interrupt something like this. Once he was swallowed by the darkness, keeping Quinton in his line of sight so that he could rejoin him when he decided to leave, Ron was startled by the sudden appearance of a figure floating above the gravestone.

It was an odd round figure with sickly gray skin and an enormous grin that dominated his entire lower face. He was dressed in a large pale-purple coat, a black top hat around which was a yellow ribbon, and a pair of spectacles around his eyes.

“It seems our conversation so long ago was cut short~” the odd man said in a cheerful tone.

“Millennium Earl? What the heck are you doing here?” Quinton said in confusion, lifting his head from the gravestone.

“I thought we’d continue our discussion from nine months ago,” the Millennium Earl said. “Remember what I told you?”

“You said you can bring Simone back to life,” Quinton said.

Ron’s eyes widened. Bringing the dead back to life? Even Ron knew that was extremely dark magic, something that Voldemort would do, and he had a bad feeling about this offer.

“Indeed~. And I will still do that for you. Bring her soul back from the despicable God who took her from you. It’s been nine months but I will still be able to do it if you want~” the Earl said and waved the pumpkin-topped umbrella Ron had just noticed him carrying and a metal frame that looked like a mannequin appeared out of nowhere.

_Is he a wizard?_ Ron wondered silently, trying to be as quiet as possible as he put down the groceries and pulled out his wand.

“All you have to do is call out your sister’s name and her soul will be brought back for you,” the Earl added cheerfully.

Quinton looked at the metal frame and opened his mouth.

Ron acted. He didn’t know why he acted but he was having a really bad feeling and his instincts were telling him that he had to stop Quinton from calling his sister’s name. “ _Expelliarmus!_ ” he shouted, throwing his wand out and the spell crashed into the metal frame, throwing it backwards.

The Millennium Earl whirled around while Quinton looked startled, his mouth still open but he closed it with a snap. “Oh~! I did not realize we had an audience,” the Earl said and studied Ron as he stepped out into the light, holding his wand in front of him and trying hard to stop his fear. He was a Gryffindor! He could be brave. He had to be.

“And such an interesting audience at that~” the Earl added.

“Ron? What are you doing here?” Quinton asked in confusion.

“Bringing someone back from the dead is bad. Mum always used to tell me that when someone dies, they’ve gone to a better place and shouldn’t be brought back,” Ron said firmly.

“But have they really?~” The Earl asked with that impossibly wide smile of his as he fixed his gaze on Ron.

“Yeah, I’m positive of that,” Ron said, hoping he sounded confident because, on the inside, he was feeling that spark of fear. The Earl just gave off that kind of vibe, the kind of vibe that told him that this man was dangerous and he should leave while he had the chance. He wasn’t as bad as You-Know-Who, who terrified Ron to the point where he was still unable to say his name, or think it for that matter, but he was close.

“You don’t sound too positive~” The Earl said in amusement and waved the umbrella, bringing the metal frame back. “But don’t interrupt if you would, boy. I am talking with this young man here.”

Quinton hesitated, gazing at the metal fame and then at the Earl. “I just want to see her one more time,” he whispered and took a deep breath.

“Quinton, stop!” Ron said, starting forward only to yelp as a blast of dark energy slammed into the ground in front of him. He jumped backwards and stared at the Earl who hadn’t even taken his gaze off Quinton but his hand was outstretched toward Ron.

Ron pointed his wand at the Earl. “ _Stupefy!_ ” he shouted.

The Earl chuckled as he sidestepped the spell. “Ah, I see. You’re one of them~ I hear that they isolated themselves away and refuse to interact with the real world and yet here you are~” He sounded very amused by that fact. “Young man, you’ve already waited for nine months, are you willing to wait longer?” He sidestepped another stunning charm that Ron threw at him.

Ron was feeling frustrated. He knew that the only reason why he was trying to stop Quinton from doing this, and stopping the Earl, was because that bad feeling wouldn’t go away. He had come to see Quinton as a sort of friend and didn’t want anything to happen to him and he feared that something bad would happen to him if he went through with this.

“No.” Quinton took a deep breath. “ _Simone!_ ” He shouted as loudly as he possibly could.

Ron swore as a blast of light enveloped the metal frame and the name _Simone_ was inscribed in cursive on the metal mannequin’s forehead. The mannequin moved and then its mouth opened. “What the…? Quin! How could you? How could you turn me into an akuma?!” The mannequin cried in horror.

Quinton looked terrified. “An akuma?” he whispered.

The Millennium Earl giggled. “Now then, my akuma,” he said to the metal mannequin. “Kill that boy and take on his form.”

“ _Stupefy!_ ” Ron shouted, that time aiming the stunning charm at the metal mannequin, the akuma, but it just bounced harmlessly off it as the akuma started toward Quinton who was frozen in terror.

“That’s not going to work, wizard. Your magic is useless against my akuma~” the Millennium Earl said with a laugh as he moved away from the metal mannequin and Quinton and, moving around it, came to a stop a few feet in front of Ron.

“What the bloody hell are you anyway? You aren’t a wizard,” Ron shouted.

“Of course not. A wizard is simply a disgusting sub-human and I am not that at all~” the Millennium Earl said and a scream sounded behind him that was abruptly cut off. Ron felt sick to his stomach as he realized what just happened and he watched the metal mannequin morph to take on Quinton’s form. Quinton was nowhere to be seen.

“Now then, my akuma, your first mission is to destroy this boy. I have this odd feeling he’s going to prove a threat in the future and that I cannot have. Have fun~” the Millennium Earl said with a laugh and his umbrella opened up before he floated away, still laughing as the akuma that looked like Quinton turned toward Ron.

Ron swallowed, his wand hand shaking a little. He didn’t know what to do. It had already been proven that his magic wouldn’t work against the akuma. The akuma started toward him, a smile crossing its lips and Ron backed away, surprised as terror ran through his veins. This was the body of his friend and yet it wasn’t him, that evil smile on his lips was proof of that.

The akuma leapt at Ron who threw himself to the side to avoid the akuma or, rather, the gun barrel that jutted out of the eyes that had once belonged to Quinton. He rolled away until he was behind one of the gravestones and crouched down, peering around it as Quinton’s body turned and fired that gun barrel at him. He ducked out of sight and the purple beams passed harmlessly past the gravestone.

_Damn it, what am I supposed to do now?_ He thought, biting his lip and looking around. _If I could just distract it then I could get out of here. If I can get away from the lanterns, I can use the darkness to hide._

An idea came to his mind. _Man, I hope this works,_ he thought and, pointing his wand around the gravestone, shouted, “ _lumos maxim!_ ” and a burst of bright light enveloped the area between him and the akuma.

Ron jumped to his feet and darted away, meandering around the gravestones and trying to get away from the many lanterns that filled the graveyard. He finally reached the last line of lanterns and ducked behind a tree, panting as he gazed around but could only see darkness stretching out in front of him and to his sides.

A blast sounded above him and Ron yelped, ducking instinctively as a purple beam shot through the tree, missing his head by centimeters. He whirled around and saw the akuma had followed him and was now firing at the tree. Ron swore. _How the bloody hell…? Can it see in the dark?_ He thought since that was really the only way that he could think of for how it knew were he was.

And if that was true than Ron was royally screwed.

_Now what am I supposed to do?_ He thought.

He took a deep breath and stepped away from the tree only to freeze when he dislodged a rock and heard it fall. It crashed into stone and then there was a splash as it hit the water and Ron realized where he was; he was on the cliff overlooking the sea.

_Bloody hell._

The akuma was getting closer and Ron slowly edged away from the cliff’s edge, his wand held in front of him though he knew that it wouldn’t do him any good. The akuma fired another volley at him again and Ron threw himself to the ground and the beams shot over his head, crashing into the ground beyond him as well as the tree he had been hiding behind earlier.

The tree shuddered violently and then toppled and Ron quickly scrambled backwards, letting go of his wand as he did so, as he struggled to get out of the way of the falling tree. It missed him by inches as it toppled onto its side and then tipped over the edge of the cliff, sliding down the cliff’s face and Ron heard it splash into the sea.

The akuma approached him, its gun barrels for eyes pointed at him. It fired at him and Ron rolled out of the way to avoid the volley, finding himself near some of the gravestones. He jumped to his feet and then dived to the side and the next volley crashed into the gravestones, sending shards of stone flying in all directions. He shielded himself with his arms and winced as a few of the stone shards pierced his skin.

He landed hard on the ground and looked around rapidly, trying to find something that he could hide behind. However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a volley flying toward him and he darted backwards. The purple beams crashed into the ground in front of him and the ground trembled violently from the impact, causing pieces of stone to crumble away into the sea and the ground beneath Ron’s feet crumbled away. With a scream, Ron was sent tumbling along with the pieces of the land toward the raging sea below.

**. . .**

Allen swatted away a swarm of bugs that flew into his face and glanced at Harry as the messy black-haired boy trudged through the dense forest at his side. They were currently trailing a few meters behind their master who didn’t seem affected by all the bugs and the humidity that filled the forest, despite being dressed in black. The forest had gotten denser in the three days that they had been traveling through it since their training mission at the temple and Allen still wasn’t entirely sure where they were heading.

He and Harry were exhausted, and Allen was starving, and they haven’t been able to rest much since the incident at the temple. Their master had let them sleep for about eight hours each night for the past three nights but then had them trudging through the forest for miles with little rest. Allen may have developed a lot of endurance during his training with Cross but when he was starving and drained of energy because of his Innocence, his endurance wasn’t as high as it normally was.

Harry had also managed to develop some endurance during the last six months but he still wasn’t exactly prepared for these mile long treks with little rest. He was currently panting and sweating but not complaining, probably fearing that mallet; Allen couldn’t blame him.

Cross was a strict and unorthodox master, that was for sure, but he did know enough and did, in his own way, give that information to Allen and Harry. Or, more or less, he gave them the opportunities to find out the answers to their questions themselves and then sat back and let them go at it. It was a different method of training but it was effective.

Of course, the debts he’d wracked up and left Allen and Harry to take care of had nothing to do with training and were just enough to sour Allen’s mood whenever they were mentioned, or he thought about them for some reason.

“A...Allen?” Harry said uncertainly.

Allen glanced at him, the dark aura he hadn’t realized he was exuding because of his thoughts bringing back many unwanted and bad memories vanished. “Hmm?” he said.

Harry let out a breath. “Never mind,” he said and turned his head before wincing when he ran forehead first into a branch. “Ow!”

Allen’s lips quirked into a faintly amused smile but he was much too polite to laugh at his friend’s misfortune.

“Watch where you’re going, brat, or you’re going to get another scar to add to the one you already have,” Cross huffed from where he’d stopped in a clearing a few meters, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his traveling cloak.

Harry gave Cross a glare but said nothing and just rubbed his forehead.

“We’re almost there,” Cross said and started striding off again, picking up the pace and Allen and Harry had to practically jog to keep up with him.

Eventually, they reached the edge of the trees and stepped out onto a hill that overlooked a small village bordered by a river snaking its way along the base of the hill. The village was made of small one story houses with thatched roofs and dirt roads with a few carriages and many merchant’s stalls lining the main road. There were a few people walking around the village and Allen noticed that they seemed worried and jumpy, gazing over their shoulders constantly as if afraid someone was going to attack them.

“Where are we anyway?” Harry asked.

“Ambilobe,” was all Cross said as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it. As he took a drag of the cigarette, he shoved Harry with his free hand. Harry yelped as he crashed into Allen and the two of them went tumbling down the hill straight into the river that bordered the village.

Shivering, Allen sat up and spat out some of the water that had gotten into his mouth. He turned to Harry who had surfaced as well, his black hair plastered against his head as he spat out water and glared up the hill at Cross.

“Git,” he muttered and swam toward the edge of the river.

Allen swam after Harry, thinking the same thing but not saying so aloud, and the two of them climbed onto the riverbank; Allen was very much aware of the looks that he was receiving from the villagers who’d seen that.

Standing up and squeezing water out of his shirt, he gave one of the woman who’d seen the whole thing a polite smile and bowed in greeting. “I’m so sorry about our rather abrupt arrival, ma’am,” he said politely.

The woman gave them a tight, uncertain smile. “That’s all right but what brings you here? We don’t get many visitors,” she said.

“We...”

“My apologies for my apprentices rather abrupt arrival, ma’am,” Cross said smoothly, striding past Allen, not soaked in the least nor the least bit out of breath from the trek down the hill, and he took the woman’s hand before gently pressing his lips to the back of it. “My, had I known such a beautiful woman as yourself was nearby, I would have ensured that my apprentices made a more graceful entrance.”

“This was your fault to begin with,” Harry growled, squeezing water out of his shirt and wiping water off the glasses that had, miraculously, not fallen off or broke during the tumble down the hill.

Cross ignored him as he lifted his head. “And what is your name, beautiful?” he purred.

The dark-skinned woman gave a little giggle, the uncertainty vanishing in an instant. “My name’s Christelle, sir,” she said.

“A beautiful name for a beautiful lady,” Cross said as he straightened up but didn’t let go of the woman’s hand. “The name’s Cross Marian, Exorcist General of the Black Order. Will you do me the honor of escorting me to the village leader?”

Harry mock-gagged.

“Of course, sir, this way,” Christelle said with a giggle.

Cross, walking after Christelle, shoved Harry back into the river as he walked past him. With a yelp, Harry landed in the water with a splash.

“Catch up once you’ve fished the brat out of the river, Idiot Apprentice,” Cross said without even looking at Allen.

Allen sighed as he moved over to the river and held out a hand to the thoroughly soaked and very much pissed off Harry. Grabbing Allen’s hand, Harry dragged himself out of the river and muttered “how the bloody hell is he a general again?” under his breath.

The two of them followed after Cross and Christelle as they walked along the river and then turned onto one of the side roads that ran parallel to the main road. They walked past the small houses toward the largest of all the buildings at the other end of the street.

Christelle let go of Cross’s hand and turned to him. “Wait here, sir, while I go get Miss Rakoto,” she said.

Cross nodded and Christelle disappeared into the main building. The Exorcist General, pulling out his cigar and relighting it, turned to Allen and Harry. “We’re staying here for the next week to deal with an akuma problem. You two, go find us a nice inn to stay at and get me something to drink while you’re at it,” he said firmly.

“With what money?” Harry said crossly, obviously still a bit peeved about being pushed into the river twice.

“You handle that, Idiot Apprentice,” Cross said and pointed with his free hand at one of the buildings. “That’s the gambling hall. May as well deal with the debt I have with ‘em while you’re at it.”

Christelle came back at that moment. “This way, sir,” she said and Cross followed her as she led the way into the building.

“Debt...always a debt to take care of,” Allen murmured as a black aura surrounded him and he began muttering numbers under his breath. He snapped out of that in an instant when he remembered that his master had said that it was a gambling hall. Gambling meant poker and…

A sweetly innocent smile crossed his lips and he let out a very evil chuckle before walking off to the gambling hall, intent on stripping the poker players within it of all their money and their clothes while he was there.

**. . .**

There was a streak of green light.

A bright flash of emerald green light that shot from the heart of the city toward the coast. In the darkness-shrouded city, the streak was visible to everyone, though no one knew what it belonged to. It continued its fast journey across the ground toward the red-haired time traveler who was still falling along with pieces of the ground.

Ron tried to find something to grab onto but everything that he grabbed fell away almost as soon as he grabbed it. He didn’t know what to do; he was basically free falling toward the darkness and could do nothing to stop his fall. He could hear the dark raging sea grow louder and louder as he continued to fall

And then a flash of green light enveloped him entirely. He didn’t know what had happened but, when he attempted to grab something to stop his fall, spears of glowing green trimmed silver curved around his body and sank into the stone; it gorged a scar into the crumbling stone before abruptly coming to a halt. Ron, resting on an enlarged shield of silver edged with pulsating green that swayed like a pendulum, blinked up at the four arced spears that were lodged into the stone around him like a cradle.

_What the bloody hell just happened?_ Ron thought. He wasn’t exactly complaining that the odd shield thing he was laying on had, somehow, saved his life but he was more than a little confused.

Ron tilted his head toward the top of the cliff, the green light that surrounded the edges of the enlarged shield and the edges of the spears allowed him to make out the akuma that was standing on the cliff’s edge, the gun barrel that had replaced its eyes pointed at Ron.

A volley of purple beams shot toward him and Ron, self-consciously, shielded himself with his arms. He felt the enlarged shield move and, when he looked up, he was surprised to find that more of those green-edged silver spears had arched over him to create a shield that the purple beams were unable to penetrate.

It was then that he noticed that there was a glowing green line that traced along his arms, ending at the back of his hands and he, somehow subconsciously, knew that it was connected to the shield. The green light pulsated and Ron was surprised by the warmth that exuded off the light; it reminded him of the hugs that his mum used to give him all the time. It was warm and it was accepting.

The akuma that had once been Quinton suddenly split its human “skin” and morphed into a round white creature with dozens of gun barrels jutting out of its body but continued firing volleys of purple energy down at Ron. Ron grimaced because he wasn’t entirely sure just how long the shield around him would last; it didn’t seem as if it was getting weaker but Ron didn’t even know what it was made of and so didn’t know how much it could actually take.

Ron honestly didn’t know what had prompted him to point one of his hands at the akuma but he did. His confusion by his unconscious movement increased when one of the spears that had lodged into the cliff’s face pulled free and shot toward the akuma. The red-headed Gryffindor stared in shock as the spear shot through the akuma and it exploded in a burst of dark energy that melded perfectly into the near black backdrop behind it.

_What...the...bloody...hell?_ Ron thought in confusion.

A bark sounded suddenly and then a shout of “Ron? Are you around here somewhere? Ron!” came from the top of the cliff.

“Sirius!” Ron called but his voice was lost in the crash of the sea against the stone beneath him.

Ron looked at the dark spears that were coiled almost protectively around him and remembered that had happened when he’d crossed his arms as if to protect himself. Did they, maybe, respond to what he wanted them to do or how he moved his arms? Ron may not be as intelligent as Hermione but even he was good at putting pieces together; it was what made him a good strategist at chess because he was able to put the pieces of his opponents’ strategy together and counter it.

They had moved in response to his movement, like when he’d pointed at the akuma or had crossed his arms to protect himself or had reached out to grab something to stop his fall. So he uncrossed his arms, and the dark spears copied his movement and removed the shield that it had formed around him. He gestured to the spears and mimed climbing up the cliff’s face and was relieved when the spears started to climb up the cliff’s face in tune with his hand’s movements.

Before long, he reached the top of the cliff, still resting on the enlarged shield and feeling like a spider with the spears edged into the ground. He shivered at the thought. He hated spiders. _Now how am I supposed to get down from here?_ He thought.

“Ron?” Sirius’s shocked voice said and Ron turned his head to find Sirius looking up at him in shock.

“Hey Sirius,” he said, waving a hand and watching, in amusement, as one of the spears removed itself from the ground and waved in time with his hand. _So it really does follow whatever my hands or arms do,_ he thought. _Man, I really don’t get this or really anything that’s going on. I wish Hermione were here. She’d know what to do._

“How did you get up there?” Sirius asked and now he looked amused.

“Erm...I honestly have no clue and I don’t really know how to get down,” Ron said and tried to sit up. He yelped as the enlarged shield tilted and glided to the ground, the spears shrinking back into it before vanishing entirely as the enlarged shield shrank in size. Ron was left sitting on the ground with a diamond-shaped shield resting on his back, its straps covering his shoulders and the glowing green line that had been on his arms were gone.

“Okay. What the bloody hell is going on?” Ron groaned, removing the shield and looking at it, his eyes drawn to the glowing green cross that was embedded into the center of the silver shield.

“You tell me,” Sirius said.

“I honestly have no clue. Wish Hermione were here. She’s brilliant and probably would know what happened,” Ron said.

Sirius hummed. “Well, no use thinking about it now. C’mon, let’s get back. Where’s Quinton?” he asked.

“He’s dead, got killed by an akuma,” Ron said bluntly. He has never been one to really beat around the bush, which was why Hermione always told him that he didn’t have any tact.

“What? Tell me what happened,” Sirius said.

Ron nodded and explained everything that had happened. Maybe Sirius would know what the hell was going on because he certainly didn’t; all he knew was that his friend was dead and that thing, that akuma, had turned to look just like him.

“Millennium Earl? Are you absolutely sure that’s what Quinton called him?” Sirius asked sharply.

“Yeah, why?”

“I’ve heard that name mentioned before and I went to a nearby library to see if I could find something about him. Yeah, yeah, I know. I ain’t a library person but that Millennium Earl sounded like a dark wizard to me and I just had to figure out if there was anyone who knew anything about him.”

“Did you find out anything?”

“No. It doesn’t seem as if anyone really knows anything about the Millennium Earl.”

“What about akuma?”

Sirius shrugged. “I dunno. I suppose I could go back and look into that more,” he said, though it didn’t sound as if he really wanted to do that.

“I wish Hermione were here. She’d probably love to be able to research akuma,” Ron commented and looked back at the shield, a small frown crossing his lips as his thoughts drifted to Quinton.

He felt someone kneel beside him and turned to Sirius who hesitantly placed a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, look at it this way, at least you avenged Quinton,” he said.

“Yeah, though I ain’t sure that his dad’s gonna like hearing that his son got killed by an akuma,” Ron said.

“It might be better if I tell him,” Sirius said.

“Yeah, probably.”

“C’mon, let’s get back.”

Ron stood up and, glancing at the shield he was still holding, shrugged and put it back on his back. He may as well keep it; it did, somehow, save his life so he could definitely use it, if he could figure out how to use it anyway. He didn’t know how to do that but, maybe, after he and Sirius found Hermione, she could figure it out for him.

**. . .**

Harry relaxed on the bed of the finest inn in Ambilobe, paid for by the money that Allen had won after cheating his way through several poker matches and stripping his opponents down completely during that time. Cross had used some of the money Allen had obtained to pay for two rooms, one in which he’d happily taken the woman Christelle into earlier and, frankly, Harry did not want to know what was going on in the room across the hall.

He turned to Allen who was fast asleep on his bed and yawned himself, thinking back to what had happened earlier that day. After Cross had finished speaking with the village leader, and Allen had finished winning quite a large sum of money, the three of them had traveled to the edge of the village where Cross had tasked them with eliminating the akuma that were going to attack soon.

Apparently, the reason why they’d gone to that village was because it was prone to akuma attacks at sundown, though no one really knew why—Cross had nonchalantly said that they were ordered to do so for some reason—and Cross had promised the village leader to handle the problem once he got more help.

Or, rather, once he got two apprentices to throw to the wolves, so to speak, and then sit back and watch what happened while drinking from a bottle of the village’s finest wine.

Which was exactly what he did.

Harry still resented him for that. Not because of the akuma that he and Allen had to destroy, since there had only been five of them, but because they were still exhausted from their trek through the forest and the lack of enough food in Allen’s case. It made the fight against the akuma more difficult but they’d managed to defeat them.

Cross had simply told them that this was a lesson for them.

_“Your enemy is not going to just sit back and wait for you to recuperate. They will attack whenever the hell they want and they won’t care if you’re half-dead to the world so you need to learn how to fight even when you’re running low on energy.”_

Harry supposed he could understand that. He mused that the same piece of advice, albeit put a bit better, sounded like something he would be told about fighting against Death Eaters. Death Eaters were like akuma in that they would attack and wouldn’t care if their opponent was exhausted; in fact, it was more likely that Death Eaters would attack while their opponents was exhausted because it would make it easier for them, just as it would for the akuma.

The akuma were designed to kill, especially Exorcists, who were the akuma’s creator’s greatest enemy, after all.

At the very least, he and Allen were given the next day off to recuperate and Allen had been given enough food to feed ten people, which helped him greatly in replenishing his lost energy. Harry, himself, had only eaten a couple of plates of food.

When they’d gotten back to their room, Allen had passed out almost as soon as his head hit his pillow but Harry found himself unable to go to sleep and yet he wasn’t entirely sure what was keeping him up.

Sighing, he reached for his wand and then rolled onto his back, gazing at the wand and at the little green cross embedded into the wood. He turned the wand over between his fingers, his thoughts drifting.

He was brought out of his thoughts by a soft whimper and he turned to find Allen tossing and turning in his bed, his eyes still closed but his brow was furrowed in distress. It was clear that he was in the midst of a nightmare and, as Harry sat up, he heard something that startled him, and made him feel suspicious and concerned all at the same time.

“Mana...I’m sorry...”

_Sorry about what?_ Harry thought and the part of him that was too curious for its own good reared its little head once again. He had managed to push aside the curiosity he normally felt when he’d found out that Allen could see the souls of akuma for some reason but it had come back upon hearing Allen’s words.

Allen let out another little whimper as he tossed and turned. “No, run Mana. Don’t let me hurt you,” he whimpered and Harry saw tears fall from his eyes.

He climbed out of bed and walked over to his friend, stretching out a hand to wake him up from his nightmare but hesitated, those last words echoing in his head. _Why would he dream about him hurting Mana? He said that he loved Mana so why would he hurt him?_ He thought, retracting his hand and gazing at the younger distressed white-haired boy.

“Mana!” Allen cried suddenly and his silver eyes shot open as he sat up so abruptly he nearly collided his head with Harry’s had Harry not jerked out of the way in time. Gasping with beads of sweat on his forehead, Allen gripped the blanket around him, blinking and gazing around as if attempting to remember where he was.

His eyes landed on Harry. “Oh, Harry. I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?” he asked, the distress in his voice abruptly masked by polite concern.

“No, I was awake,” Harry said. “You okay?”

“Oh, yes, I’m fine. It was just a bad dream,” Allen reassured him as he stretched his arms above his head and looked around for the clock, obviously looking for the time.

“Why would you hurt Mana?” Harry asked before he could stop himself.

Allen froze and lowered his arms to his side. “What do you mean?” he asked, giving him a look of puzzlement but his reaction to the question clearly told Harry that he knew exactly what he was talking about.

“You said that, in your sleep. You told Mana to run and then said ‘don’t let me hurt you’,” Harry said.

Allen was silent for a long moment, his head lowered and his white hair shadowing his features. “I would never hurt Mana,” he said and, while his voice remained quiet and soft, there was an edge of steel that told Harry that he truly meant his words.

He suddenly felt bad for his question and for the implied accusation behind it. He was about to apologize but, before he could, Allen added in a whisper that Harry barely heard. “At least...not intentionally.”

“Allen, what…?” Harry began.

“I would never hurt him intentionally,” Allen repeated it and lifted his head. Harry could see quiet grief in his silver eyes as he gazed at the emerald-eyed teen.

“Go ahead and ask what’s on your mind, Harry,” the white-haired boy added. “It’s clear that you want to know more so go ahead and ask.”

“I...”

“It’s all right.” While the grief remained on his face, the reassuring smile that Allen gave him was sincere. “I’m ready to talk about what happened so ask what you want to know.”

Harry studied him, unsure of what he meant by those words, about being ready to talk about what happened. He didn’t know why but he felt that this was a turning point in his friendship with Allen. He could either ask and satisfy his curiosity or he could keep silent and remain ignorant.

Something about the sad resignation and quiet reassurance in Allen’s voice made his decision for him.

“What happened to Mana? And how did you get that scar?” Harry asked finally; the second question was the question that he was the most curious about but the first question had come out because of what he’d overheard from Allen’s mumblings while he was caught in his nightmare. They were both questions that he realized he wanted to know the answer to; he had this odd feeling that they were related anyway.

Allen drew his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them, gazing at the wall but his gaze was unfocused.

“When Mana died, I was devastated,” he said. “He was all that I had. All I wanted was to see him, just one more time. So, on Christmas Eve that year, while I was visiting Mana’s grave, he came to me and offered to bring Mana back to life for me.”

Harry’s eyes went wide with horror as he realized just who Allen was talking about. “The Millennium Earl?” he asked to confirm.

“Yes,” Allen said. “He told me that he would bring Mana back and I just wanted to see him one more time. He was my father. I was only ten years old at the time and I missed him so I agreed. However, when Mana came back, he was furious with me for turning him into an akuma. He attacked me and cursed me to see the tormented souls of the akuma; that was how I got the curse in my eye. Then the Millennium Earl ordered him to kill me and take my form. Mana seemed to try to fight it but he did as he was told and attacked me. I only escaped because my Innocence activated and destroyed the akuma that Mana had become. He seemed...he seemed at peace when he died; his last words to me were ‘I love you, Allen’.”

Harry was staring in shock at Allen, attempting to wrap his mind around what happened.

“I was left all alone in the world after that,” Allen murmured. “Master found me three days after Mana’s second death and I didn’t speak for a good three days after that. I was that much in shock. But, when I came to realize that when I killed Mana the second time, I had freed his soul from being forever bound to serve the Millennium Earl. So when Master offered to train me to be an Exorcist, I agreed. I came to care for the akuma as much as I pitied them and I decided to train to be an Exorcist to save those enslaved souls. That was also when I decided to take Mana’s advice to me to heart and I started walking again and I haven’t stopped moving forward since then.”

Harry didn’t know what to say. He had not been expecting Allen’s story at all and, yet, he found himself feeling sympathetic toward the young man who felt like he was all alone in the world. He really was a compassionate kid in that he actually cared about his enemy enough to want to free them from their enslavement.

He placed a hand on Allen’s shoulder, causing the white-haired boy to look at him in puzzlement. Harry gave him a slight smile. “Well, I’d say that’s a pretty nice goal,” he said. “I suppose I’m still a bit surprise by what you did but I can’t exactly be angry or anything like that. I think...had I been in the same position as you, I might have done the same thing.” He thought about his parents; if he had grown up knowing his parents, would he have done the same thing as Allen had his parents been killed after he’d already gotten to know them? And if he didn’t know what he knew now?

He realized that if he didn’t know the truth about what the Millennium Earl did, and he had known his parents for a lot longer than he did, then there was a very high chance that he would do the same thing as Allen.

“You’re not the only one who would make a deal with the Devil to bring back someone they love and I doubt you’ll be the last. The Millennium Earl would be out of business if you were,” Harry said, the last part of his statement caused a faint smile to cross Allen’s lips.

“Yeah,” he said and yawned, rubbing his silver eyes.

“Get some sleep, Allen,” Harry said.

Allen nodded and laid back down. “Harry?” he said.

“Yeah?”

“You’re the first person I’ve ever actually told about what I did to Mana so thank you...for listening and not judging,” Allen said quietly.

“What are friends for?” Harry replied but he didn’t get a response and, when he looked at his friend’s face, he saw that the white-haired boy had fallen back asleep.

He remained seated on the side of Allen’s bed, watching the white-haired boy sleep and removed the hand he only just remembered he had resting on the boy’s shoulder. “You’re not alone in the world anymore though, Allen. You’ve got me now. I may not be Mana but I’ll continue to support you like he did and defend you if I have to,” he murmured and, as he stood up and walked back to his bed, he knew, deep in his heart, that he meant what he said.

**. . .**

_Next Time: Journey to the Black Order_

**. . .**


	4. Journey to the Black Order

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a prophecy is spoken, Cross is a jerk as usual, and Harry and Allen finally make it to the Black Order Headquarters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my Goodness! I have actually finished the prewritten chapters of this entire story! YAY!
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapters and reviews, kudos, and just reading this story are much appreciated.

**4**

**Journey to the Black Order**

Harry shivered, drawing his traveling cloak tighter around him as he trudged through the thick layer of snow into the clearing where they were told to wait for their master. It was late December and Harry, Allen, and their master were currently in the Himalayas on the border between the country of Nepal and the country of India. It was hard for Harry to think that he’d been stuck in the past for nine months already and yet he found that, while he did feel homesick, he was happy.

As happy as anyone could be under the tutelage of Cross Marian, stuck paying off Cross’s debts, traveling all over the world with little rest, and currently being stuck in the middle of a snowstorm in the Himalayas.

Harry supposed that it was only because of Allen that he wasn’t complaining about being stuck in the past without his friends or his godfather, even though he missed them and did constantly worry about them, as well as constantly tried finding them wherever he, Allen, and Cross went. In the last nine months, Allen had transformed from acquaintance to friend to best friend and, finally, to little brother.

Harry had no idea when it was that he had decided to unofficially adopted Allen as his little brother—he had found out that he was a year older than Allen when his sixteenth birthday had come around while they were about to leave Egypt, though they hadn’t really done anything to celebrate it—but it had happened. Maybe it was because of their similar childhoods, maybe it was because he wanted Allen to understand that he wasn’t as alone among humans as he thought he was, maybe it was just because Harry tended to see his best friends as his family anyway.

Besides, Harry had always wanted to have a little brother.

“I’m starting to hate snow,” Harry muttered, glaring at the thick layer of snow as he leaned against a tree on the edge of the clearing. They had been traveling through the snow-covered Himalayas for so long that Harry really was resenting the snow that lay around them. At the very least, the snowstorm had stopped so that was good.

The tree branch above his head that was laden with snow suddenly drooped under the snow’s weight and dumped the snow right on Harry’s head.

Allen laughed lightly. “The snow likes you,” he said.

Harry shook his head to rid it of the snow while removing his glasses and wiping the snow off it as well as off his face. He whipped off some of the snow off his shoulders and paused. As a wicked grin that would make Sirius proud crossed his lips, he bent down, gathered some snow into a snowball and threw it into Allen’s face.

Allen sputtered, wiping the snow off his face. “Hey,” he protested.

Harry just laughed and quickly ducked the snowball that Allen chugged at him. “Missed,” he said.

The next one nailed him in the face.

Allen grinned, a third snowball resting in his gloved left hand. “Did I really?” he asked.

“Oh it’s on,” Harry said firmly.

Seconds later, the two of them had engaged in a snowball fight, pelting each other with snowballs and ducking behind trees, using the trunks as shields from the ice-cold projectiles. They were both laughing as they chugged snowballs at one another and Harry was glad that he was able to get his unofficial little brother to act like the carefree teenager that he was. There were times that Harry thought Allen was being far too serious for his age, and for his own good, and he felt that Allen did need to lighten up at least a little bit every now and then.

An impromptu snowball fight seemed to have gotten Allen to do just that.

The two of them continued to throw snowballs at each other, ducking and weaving to avoid the other’s snowball and neither of them noticed the appearance of their master until a snowball hit him in the face.

Harry and Allen froze as soon as they caught sight of just who they’d hit.

Cross gave them a one-eyed glare. “Who threw it?” he said.

Harry and Allen exchanged glances.

“He did,” Allen said, pointing at Harry.

“He did,” Harry said at the same time, pointing at Allen.

Cross’s eye twitched a little. “Immature brats,” he said, folding his arms across his chest as he walked into the clearing. He didn’t say anything more as he pulled out a cigar, lit it, and took a long drag from it as he added, “We’re almost at the base of the mountains. Let’s go.” He strode off toward the forest and Harry looked at his unofficial little brother who looked just as puzzled as he did but they quickly hurried after their master.

Cross paused a few meters ahead of them and, when Harry and Allen joined them, they were both startled by the sudden shower of snow that cascaded down on them from a couple of snow-laden branches above their heads.

Cross smirked.

Harry, shivering, realized that had to be their master’s payback. He really should have expected Cross to pay them back for that snowball somehow.

They walked onward, both Harry and Allen shivering from the snow that had coated their skin in water when it melted and the icy breeze that was making them feel numb. Harry glanced at Allen, noticing that the smaller boy seemed to be shivering more than him, and he wrapped an arm around him.

Allen glanced at him.

“It’s not much, since I’m just as cold and wet as you are, but it should help a little with the cold,” Harry said.

Allen blinked at him. “Thanks,” he said with a small smile.

They finally reached the bottom of the mountains where they spotted a caravan parked on the edge of the road; there was a small family, including a young Indian woman that looked about eighteen, sitting next the caravan. It wasn’t snowing at the base of the mountain and a small fire was going around which the family was seated.

It was really no surprise that Cross made a beeline for the young woman.

Harry really should be used to that kind of thing. He really should. That didn’t stop him from sweatdropping at the sight of the Exorcist General sweet talking the young woman, and the young woman falling for the Exorcist General’s flirting as quickly as she had.

The young woman’s parents caught sight of Harry and Allen and ushered them forward. “Oh dear, you two look so cold. Come and get close to the fire and warm up. Dear, go and get them a blanket or something to help warm them up,” the mother said.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Allen said with a polite smile as he and Harry moved closer to the fire and sat down next to each other on a log. Harry removed his arm as the father came back and handed them two thick blankets that they quickly wrapped around themselves.

“So you’ve just come over the Himalayas all by yourselves?” the young woman said as she and Cross sat down on the other available log, her hand was resting in Cross’s.

“Yes, both me and my apprentices. It was a rather long journey but it was worthwhile since the first thing I see upon entering this country is your beautiful face,” Cross said.

Harry mock-gagged.

Allen sighed. “I want to say I’m used to this but I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to it,” he murmured.

“Agreed,” Harry murmured back.

“If you would like, you can travel with us. We’re heading for Agra,” the young woman said.

“It would be lovely to be escorted by such a beautiful lady,” Cross said.

Harry wanted to hit himself with something, preferably something hard, but settled for smacking his palm to his forehead.

Allen just hung his head and let out a small sigh of exasperation that turned into a sneeze.

“Dear, do we have some spare clothes to give the two young men? They look like they’re freezing,” the mother asked.

“I think we do,” the father said and stood up before heading toward the caravan. He walked into it and came back a few minutes later with two stacks of clothes. He handed one stack to Harry and the other to Allen, the latter of whom immediately thanked them with a bow of his head.

“Go ahead and use the caravan to change, dearies,” the mother said with a kind smile.

“Thanks,” Harry said and he and Allen stood up, letting the blankets fall, and went into the caravan.

As they were changing, Harry found himself looking at Allen or, more importantly, at his body. He had never really noticed how many scars actually covered Allen’s body; there were a lot, some of which looked like they were not caused by being thrown into buildings or windows as usually happened during an akuma attack.

Allen seemed to have noticed that Harry was watching because he said, “Some of the ringmasters I worked with while at the circus before Mana found me weren’t exactly nice to me.”

“I’m sorry,” Harry said.

“Don’t be. It’s in the past and I’ve let it go since I know I can’t change it. I wouldn’t be able to move forward if I kept clinging on to my past, right?” He gave Harry a faint smile as he said that before his eyes landed on the scars that Harry had been trying to keep hidden himself. Allen’s silver eyes turned sympathetic but, thankfully, he didn’t ask.

After they finished changing, they left the caravan and rejoined the family. The mother handed them each a small plate of food. “It’s not much but it’s all that we have,” she said.

“Oh thank you, ma’am,” Allen said and happily began eating.

_Allen and his food,_ Harry thought as he started eating as well. _At least he’s not inhaling it._

Time went on quickly and, at around dawn two days later, Harry, Allen, and Cross, along with the caravan that had given them a ride, reached the edge of the city of Agra. Cross had disappeared with the young Indian woman with instructions to find an inn and Harry and Allen were pretty much left to their own devices as a result.

“I wonder why we’re here,” Harry said as the two of them walked down the street, looking around for an inn that would satisfy Cross’s extravagant taste.

“Perhaps there’s another akuma problem,” Allen said, a hat hiding his white hair from view as he usually did whenever they entered a city. His white-hair always drew attention to him, attention he didn’t really care for; it seemed that was another thing that Harry and Allen had in common. They both disliked being the center of attention for something that was really beyond their control; Allen looked different and Harry was labeled a “savior” simply for surviving.

“Maybe. Are there any around?” Harry asked, looking around and pressing his lips together. He didn’t have the same ability as Allen and that made him a bit paranoid since anyone that he walked past could be an akuma in disguise.

“No,” Allen said, also scanning the area.

A couple of laughing kids darted past, playing tag, while their parents shouted at them to be careful; merchants shouted out the prices for their wares from behind their stalls that lined the main street; families and couples walked in and out of small restaurants; people chatted with each other as they strolled along the street. It seemed like a normal day in Agra and Harry couldn’t really see anything out of the ordinary, which was odd.

During the past nine months, Harry had become accustomed to moving from one dangerous situation to another, usually in the form of akuma attacks, so to find himself in an ordinary city with seemingly no danger in the area was odd. He supposed he just didn’t know what to make of it. _Why would Cross bring us here?_ He wondered silently

The one thing he knew about Cross Marian was that the unorthodox Exorcist General never did anything without a reason behind it, even if that reason was simply because the woman was beautiful and he wanted to get to know her better. That wasn’t the case this time because Harry was pretty sure his meeting with that young Indian woman, that Harry never did get the name of, had been a chance encounter.

“Come, hear your fortunes be told. Madame Trelawney will read to you your future,” a voice called out from one of the stalls as Harry and Allen were about to pass it and Harry froze, his head whipping around at the sound of the familiar name. He gazed at the woman that was seated in front of a crystal ball, her hands hovering above it while the young man at her side continued to try to entice customers to speak with her.

The woman actually did bore an unkindly resemblance to Harry’s Divination teacher. She had the same large dark green eyes, though she didn’t wear glasses, and the same face as the Divination teacher from the future. She was also a lot older than Professor Trelawney, looking to be in her sixties, maybe even older than that, with wrinkles on her face and crow’s feet resting on the corners of her eyes. She was dressed like most Indian woman but her pale skin immediately told Harry that she wasn’t a native Indian, if her last name hadn’t already given that away.

“Come, young one, come,” the old woman said, gesturing toward Harry. “Bring your young friend, my friend.”

Harry blinked. “Me?” he said uncertainly.

“Yes, yes, you. Come now. I will not take long. I knew that you were coming. My Inner Eye speaks to me and prods me, telling me that I must tell you of your future, young traveler,” the woman said.

Harry hesitated but moved over to the stall. Allen blinked at him in confusion but followed suit.

“Who are you?” Harry asked finally.

The young man next to the old woman bristled. “You’ve never heard of Madame Trelawney, the most renown Seer in the known world?” he asked.

“Peace, grandson,” the old woman said gently, placing a calming hand on the young man’s arm. “I can sense that he has encountered false prophets before and likely thinks of me as such so I shall introduce myself to you and you alone, Harry Potter.”

Harry stared. _How did she know my name?_ He thought.

“I am Cassandra Trelawney, young one,” the old woman said with a gentle smile, stretching out a gnarled hand toward Harry before turning to her grandson. “You may leave now, grandson. I will speak with Harry Potter and his companion alone.”

The name rang a familiar bell and Harry briefly recalled that Professor Trelawney, while a fraud herself, had been descended from an actual famous Seer, as Umbridge had made clear during her interrogation of Trelawney. And the name of that actual famous Seer had been Cassandra.

_Is this woman Professor Trelawney’s ancestor, the real famous Seer that Umbridge had mentioned?_ Harry thought.

Her grandson hesitated but nodded and Trelawney stood up. “Come, let us speak in privacy,” she said and led the way into a misty room behind her that reminded Harry of the room in the North Tower, except that there wasn’t an overwhelming smell of incense.

“Are you a real Seer? I want proof,” Harry said once they were alone and Trelawney had taken a seat at another table. Harry stood in front of her while Allen, who’d followed him into the room, stood next to him.

“Very well, young one. Perhaps this will prove it to you, young traveler through time,” Trelawney said and placed her hands on the crystal ball, her eyes taking on a distant look, while Harry froze. That was his first proof that Cassandra Trelawney did know things that she shouldn’t know but didn’t exactly prove that she could see the future.

Allen was looking at him now and Harry winced, realizing that Trelawney had said that loud enough for the white-haired boy to hear. The younger boy didn’t say anything though, for which Harry was grateful, and he could hope that Allen wouldn’t ask about that.

“You have a godfather from whence you came,” Trelawney said quietly, her voice distant, “a godfather who can transform into a dog at will and will use his other form to sneak into your school. Many will believe that he is there to kill you but he is only there to capture and kill the true traitor, the man who can transform into a rat by the name of Peter Pettigrew.”

Harry was silent, staring at the woman in utter shock because there was no way that woman could know about Sirius nor could she know about what happened in his third year at Hogwarts. He swallowed as he realized that this woman wasn’t a fraud like her descendant.

“Okay,” he said shakily, “I believe you.”

Trelawney’s eyes cleared up and she gave him a small smile. “As I thought you would. It is not every day that one comes face to face with a true Seer. Now may I tell you of what to expect while in this time?” she asked softly.

Harry hesitated. “Can you tell me if my friends and godfather ended up here as well?” he asked quietly.

“They have, young one, but they are in just as much danger as you are. Please, take a seat and I shall tell you what it is I have seen about your future in this time,” Trelawney said, gesturing to the chair across from her.

Harry was silent but slid into the chair. If anything, Cassandra Trelawney’s predictions seemed as if they would be better than the predictions of Harry’s Divination professor because Cassandra Trelawney was an actual Seer.

“Isn’t this against the law or something?” Harry asked since he knew that using magic in front of muggles was against the law.

“Not here in India,” Trelawney said simply. “Nor is it a law in various places around the world. England is really the only place in which it is illegal to use my gifts on those who do not wield magic. Besides, I am in the presence of two people who wield their own set of powers so it would not be breaking the law if there was one. I have not spoken with an Innocence user in a long time, let alone two, one of which is a time traveler who is also part of the society that I am part of.”

Harry shifted uncomfortably. He did not like that this woman was pretty much revealing the secret he had kept to himself for the past nine months to Allen.

“He deserves to know the truth. It will help both of you in the long run, Harry Potter,” Trelawney said as if somehow reading Harry’s thoughts. “Now, shall I tell you of what it is I have seen in store for you?

Harry sighed. “All right, let’s get this over with,” he said. Besides, he was having this odd feeling that he should listen and Cassandra Trelawney was an actual Seer, one that even Hermione had read about, and, according to Hermione, her predictions were always true.

Trelawney rested her hands on the crystal ball that her grandson had moved from outside to place in front of her. Her eyes went distant as she whispered, “I foresee a lot; many things that happen are very minor but there are some major things that shall happen while you are in this time, young Harry Potter. Listen to my words and head them closely, young traveler through time.”

“ _The one of ice shall shine in a snowy land._ _The_ _shield bearer_ _and the canine star shall be revealed in the land of darkness._ _The one of moonlight shall unlock a beast._ _The one of both worlds shall_ _start_ _on the path to awakening_ _in the wake_ _of_ _a tragic confrontation. The one of ice and the one of blood shall fall before the enemy of bonds. The song of the one of destruction shall unleash a melody of salvation. The future shall become shrouded in darkness in the wake of a c_ _ataclysm. O_ _ne shall either strike balance or be devoured by his inner darkness._ _The stage shall shift and the Chosen One shall return to the war from whence he came._ ”

Harry listened to the words of the Seer, unable to make sense of most of what she said, but his mind latched on to those last words. “Does that mean...I’ll be able to return home?” he asked hopefully.

“There is no guarantee,” Trelawney said as she pulled herself from her trance. “But if it does occur, it shall not occur until all that I have said beforehand comes to pass. The future is not set in stone; my final words simply state that you _may_ be able to return to your own time but do not believe my words to be the absolute truth for it is not. It shall happen or it shall not happen; however, do not lose hope and do not lose your bonds that you have created with the people you have met within this timeline. Your bonds of family and friendship shall help you to walk the correct path that shall take you back to the world from whence you came.”

Harry sighed. He supposed that Trelawney was right. Even he knew that no future was set in stone. Nonetheless, at least the Seer’s words did give him some hope that he will be able to go back to his own time.

But...Harry glanced over his shoulder at Allen who was frowning at Trelawney’s words. _Do I want to leave Allen behind? He has become like a little brother to me in the last nine months,_ he thought but pushed the thought out of his mind. He would worry about that later because, according to Trelawney, he wouldn’t be able to get back to his own time until everything Trelawney had said before she said those last words came to pass.

And he had no idea of what the rest of her long prophecy truly meant or who it was referring to at that.

“That is all I have for you, Harry Potter. May I show you your future, Allen Walker?” Trelawney asked, turning to Allen.

“Oh, uh, no that’s okay,” Allen said with a quick wave of his hands, looking unsettled, though whether it was because of Trelawney’s words or just the tone of voice she’d used when she said those words, Harry didn’t know. He was willing to bet it was the latter; the former wasn’t quite that vague but it was vague enough that Harry couldn’t begin to figure out what Trelawney meant. However, the latter had even unsettled _him._

Trelawney gave Allen a peaceful smile. “I will not pressure you, Allen Walker, but I am most curious about something. May I see your Innocence?” she asked quietly.

Allen looked startled and hesitated. “I’m not sure...” he began uncertainly.

“Peace, I have already ‘seen’ what it looks like so you have no need to worry about a negative reaction from me.”

Allen was silent but he nodded. “All right, ma’am,” he said and, removing the white glove from his left arm, he held out the scaly red arm to Trelawney. She took it and traced her fingers over the glowing green cross on the back of it.

“Ah, I see,” she murmured. “It is not fully activated and I sense something else. Yes. You, child, are the one that...”

“Brat! Idiot Apprentice! There you are!” A shout sounded, interrupting Trelawney mid-sentence and Cross strode into the misty room with Trelawney’s annoyed and apologetic grandson rushing after him.

Trelawney let her sentence trail off and gave Allen a small smile as she released his left arm. “I see. It is not my place to tell you that. You shall have to find out on your own, child,” she said quietly and folded her hands in between herself and her crystal ball. “Grandson, please escort Harry Potter, Allen Walker, and their master out.”

“Yes, Grandmother,” her grandson said and, gesturing to the two unsettled teens and one annoyed Exorcist General, he led them out of the house.

About twenty minutes later, the three of them found themselves in the inn room that Cross had irritably got them since they hadn’t been able to do it themselves, since they’d been sidetracked by that fortune teller. Cross was lounging on one of the chairs, drinking as usual, while Harry was curled up on one of the beds, his thoughts on what Trelawney had told him, and Allen seemed like he was trying to ask something but kept stopping himself before the question could come out.

“Oh just ask him the damn question you wanna ask him, Idiot Apprentice,” Cross said irritably, taking a swig from his wine bottle.

Allen hesitated but then turned his silver gaze to Harry. “Is what that fortune teller said true? Are you really a time traveler?”

Harry wanted to deny it but, when he found himself gazing into Allen’s quietly distant but still a tad trusting eyes, he found that he couldn’t. He knew that, despite his kind demeanor and the fact that he acted like a distant gentleman all the time, he wasn’t naive and he wasn’t trusting; he didn’t trust anyone and Harry suspected that he didn’t really care for humans that much. He had already made it clear that he cared for akuma as much as he pitied them but Harry couldn’t recall Allen ever saying the same thing about humans.

Nonetheless, because Allen didn’t trust anyone, for Harry to have gained a sliver of trust from the white-haired boy was a big accomplishment. He found that he didn’t want to betray that trust by lying to his friend, to the boy whom he’d come to see as his little brother.

Besides, Allen had been honest with him about his childhood and about turning Mana into an akuma and then killing him. Why shouldn’t Harry be honest with him in return?

“Yeah, I am,” he said finally.

“Really?” Allen looked surprised. “I didn’t think time travel was possible.”

“Neither did I,” Harry admitted. He sighed and, uncurling his legs, he tucked them under him as he turned to face Allen fully. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you but...”

“It’s okay, Harry,” Allen said with a faint smile. “I probably wouldn’t have believed you anyway. As it is, I’m still having a hard time grasping such a concept.”

“I mean,” he added hastily, “don’t get me wrong, I do believe you. I just...”

“Yeah, I understand. It’s been about nine months and I’m still not completely used to the fact that I’m about a hundred years in the past.”

“Wow, a hundred years?”

“Uh huh.”

The two of them fell silent; the only sound came from Cross shifting in his seat or taking a long drink of his wine bottle.

Allen glanced at his master. “You don’t seem surprised, Master,” he said.

Cross shrugged. “I’d figured something was wrong with the brat when he first showed up and time travel ain’t as far-fetched a concept as you would think,” he said. “Well, Brat, you being from the future don’t really change anything. You’re stuck in this time and that’s all there is to it.”

“No duh. I already know that,” Harry shot back irritably and turned to Allen, adding, “So...are you okay with this?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Allen looked confused. “You being from the future doesn’t change anything.”

Harry was surprised by the relief he felt at that.

“Well, now that you two are done, get over here. I’ve gotta talk with you two,” Cross said, finishing off his wine bottle and then standing up.

Harry and Allen looked at each other warily but got to their feet and walked over to join Cross.

“What do you need to talk with us about, Master?” Allen asked.

“It’s been three years for you, Idiot Apprentice, and I’ve decided that you don’t need my guidance anymore. Congrats, Idiot Apprentice, you have earned the title of Exorcist now and so did the Brat next to ya, I suppose. Let’s hope he doesn’t screw it up ‘cause he ain’t got the same amount of training time as you did. Eh, whatever. Not my problem anymore. Anyway, you will join me and journey to the Black Order Headquarters. I will send a letter of recommendation to the supervisor, Komui, and have Timcampy guide you there. When you two wake up, you will go forth.”

Allen looked happy but then uncertain. “Wait, what do you mean ‘when you two wake up’? You’re not going with us, even though you just said you would?” he asked.

Cross pulled out the mallet. “I dislike headquarters,” he stated firmly.

_Oh bloody hell,_ was the only thing that Harry managed to think before there was nothing but darkness.

**. . .**

Three months passed by since Harry and Allen had been knocked out by their master and then awoke, stranded in the middle of India without their master and with a couple of new debts to take care of along with Cross’s final orders for them. Under the guidance of Timcampy, who remained with them, they managed to evade the debt collectors and make it to England, though it had taken them a full three months. Considering they were traveling on foot, or hitching a ride in caravans, across the land, Allen wasn’t that surprised that it had taken as long as it had.

“Glad you weren’t leading, Allen, otherwise we probably would have found ourselves in Antarctica,” Harry teased as the two of them hopped off the caravan that had given them a lift for the last few miles into London, England.

“Haha,” Allen said and gazed around the land that had been where he had first met Mana and had started his journey.

“London looks different now than it does where I come from. It’s not as big,” Harry commented as the two of them, with Timcampy fly ahead of them, headed deeper into the quiet streets of London.

Allen hummed. He had come to terms with finding out that Harry was from the future, though he honestly still had no idea how that happened, and so had gotten used to how Harry had started to more freely talk about the future he came from. He didn’t mention too much, admitting he didn’t want to change the future more than he already had, but Allen got the gist of what he was saying.

He had also revealed to Allen another truth while they were traveling to England; he was a wizard and magic actually existed.

That had come about because Allen had finally asked why Harry always shouted Latin words whenever he used his Innocence—they had been attacked a couple of times by akuma during their journey—and Harry had admitted that final secret to him. It was a shock to find out that a secret society actually existed alongside their own but then, considering the Black Order was a secret society itself, Allen had been quick to get over his shock. Just as he had told Harry when he found out the older boy was from the future, he stated that Harry being a wizard didn’t change anything either.

It also made Allen understand Harry more since he now knew that it was because of Harry’s magic that his relatives had treated him as badly as he had, once again affirming that they had far too similar childhoods.

A flash of white jolted Allen out of his thoughts and he blinked, eyes widening as he saw a fluffy white cat land lightly on its feet in front of him. It turned to look at him before bolting but not before Allen saw the golden tail sticking out of its mouth.

“Hey, get back here!” Allen shouted and bolted after the cat.

“What’s going on?” Harry asked, following him.

“That cat just ate Tim.”

“Not again!”

The two of them chased the white cat, who was rather fast, down the streets of the town and, when they noticed it slipping through the back door of an abandoned church, they quickly followed suit. Allen huffed as he gazed around, looking for any sign of the cat and then he spotted it and charged forward.

“There you are!” he shouted.

If he had known that the cat was being held by a policewoman at the time, he would have done something different to get that cat back.

Nonetheless, that was how he and Harry—Harry was a bit peeved by that—found themselves in the home of the policewoman that they had run into in the abandoned church.

Everything had happened so fast. When Allen had caught the cat, and the policewoman Moore with it, and dragged them both upstairs, Harry had followed, and the police that were with Moore had been killed in an akuma attack shortly after they left. Moore had ended up passing out after trying to help her comrades, because she breathed in the toxic gas that the festering corpse had exuded, and Harry and Allen had teamed up to carry her to the police station.

There, they had been accused of being the ones responsible for what happened but Moore vouched for them.

The only reason why they were in Moore’s house was because the lead investigator had refused to believe Allen’s story about how the akuma had been responsible for what happened to Moore’s comrades. He had then insisted that Moore was to take care of the two kids that Allen was sure he believed were delusional.

And thus was why they were stuck in their current predicament, locked up in the study of Moore’s house with Moore, herself, watching them. Granted, that had only happened because the two of them had tried to leave but the cat had escaped and when Allen attempted to catch the cat again, he made enough noise, and knocked down enough things, to attract Moore’s attention.

“This is your fault,” Harry said, folding his arms across his chest.

“Well, it’s not like I was actually expecting the investigator to not believe me,” Allen said, still gazing out the window at the church where he knew the akuma that had escaped was likely to strike again. He knew that only because Moore had mentioned, in passing, that there were a number of disappearances in the abandoned church lately.

“Did you honestly think he would? The only reason _I_ didn’t think you were crazy was because I saw those akuma with my own eyes,” Harry said. “And I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the fact that we got into this mess because you attacked a police officer.”

“I did apologize. I was just trying to get the cat. It’s not like I meant to attack Miss Moore,” Allen muttered.

“Still.”

The two of them fell silent before Moore broke it by saying, “Allen?”

Allen turned to look at the blonde police woman who was resting her chin on the palm of her hand and her elbow on the desk, watching him through the glasses that rested on the bridge of her nose.

“Yeah?” he said.

“Do you really think the culprit is an akuma?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Don’t you know that an ‘akuma’ is just an imaginary creature that was created by our ancestors who feared diseases and pain? It’s only a word, or an imaginary thing. They don’t exist in reality. I don’t believe in curses or akuma,” Moore said.

“I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing,” Harry said thoughtfully, thinking about what he had come to know as akuma in the past year since he’d been thrown into the past. “The akumas we’re talking about are the name of weapons, made by the devil”— _well, Millennium Earl but I personally think the term devil does actually work, especially considering what he’s trying to_ _do_ _—_ “that target human beings.”

Allen nodded in agreement. “Normally, they take on the form of a human being so it’s hard to tell but...” he began but broke off as the door slammed open and a man with scruffy brown hair in a wheelchair wheeled his way into the room.

Moore, startled, jumped to her feet. “Brother Mark? What are you doing here?” she asked, rushing forward. “What’s wrong?”

Allen suddenly stiffened as his left eye activated and he found himself gazing up at the crying soul of a woman hovering above Mark. “Akuma,” he murmured to Harry who nodded and pulled out his wand while Allen prepared to activate his Innocence.

Then the body of the human split apart and the grotesque form of the level 1 akuma emerged from it. It rose up, connected to the wheelchair by streaks of dark matter and Moore, gasping, stared in horror at what Mark had become.

“W...What the hell is this?” she gasped.

“Harry, get Moore,” Allen shouted.

“On it,” Harry said and darted forward, grabbing Moore’s arm and pulling her behind him while the akuma unleashed a volley of bullets from its gun barrels. Allen jumped in between Moore and Harry and the akuma. He gritted his teeth as his left hand grabbed one of the bullets that would have hit them otherwise, aware that another had grazed the cat that had, somehow, ended up in his arms. The resulting explosion caused Allen, Harry, and Moore to be thrown backwards, through the window, and across the street. They crashed hard through the window of the church and the latter two skidded across the debris-covered floor to crash into a set of doors near the stairwell. Allen grunted as he landed on the staircase, the force of the impact momentarily dazing him as the volley came to a stop.

**. . .**

Harry sat up, panting and turned around, his back hurting from skidding across the ruined floor of the old abandoned church. “Moore, are you okay?” he asked, scanning her to see if any pentacles were showing up more to be on the safe side than anything. He knew, after a year of seeing it happen constantly, that a single graze would be enough to cause the akuma poison to be injected into one’s system.

“Y...Yeah, w...where are we?” Moore asked in confusion, lifting her head and gazing around.

“At the church. Ow.” Harry winced as he looked around and, when he didn’t see his white-haired unofficial little brother, called, “Allen?”

“Up here.”

Harry turned to find Allen, bruised and covered in scrapes, jumping down from the stairwell he must have landed on, the cat was curled up in one hand— _when did that happen?_ —and the deformed scaly red hand wrapped around a bullet.

“You caught it?” Harry said surprised. He’d never seen that happen before but then this was probably the first time that they had been at near point blank range with the akuma when it fired.

“Yeah and we were clear before the rest could hit. It wasn’t so lucky though,” Allen said with a sad nod at the motionless cat.

“Y...That’s a bullet. How the heck did you stop it?” Moore exclaimed, reaching out a hand almost self-consciously.

Harry grabbed her hand quickly. “If you touch that bullet, it’ll infect you with the same virus that infected the cat and, well, that happens,” he said, gesturing to the cat as pentacles appeared on the cat’s fur before it shattered into ash.

“Damn it. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you,” Allen whispered sadly.

“W...What happened to Brother Mark?” Moore whispered, looking shaken.

“That wasn’t Mark. It was an akuma who killed Mark and took over his corpse,” Allen said.

Harry pushed himself to his feet, his wand in his hand just as there was a crash and Allen pushed Moore behind them. “It’s here,” he said just as the akuma barreled its way into the lower levels of the church.

“Yo! What the hell are you guys doing here?” the lead detective shouted as he and his men darted into the open, only to freeze when they saw the creature that floated between them and Harry, Allen, and Moore.

“What the hell…?” The lead detective exclaimed. “I don’t know what that is but shoot it.”

“Get out of here,” Harry shouted. “Guns will only anger it.”

The akuma whirled around and began firing at the detectives. Moore cried, covering her face with her hands in horror with tears in her eyes, while Harry swore under his breath, averting his eyes as the detectives shattered into dust. It had only been a year and Harry was still not used to that; he didn’t think he ever would be.

Moore peeked around Harry’s form, her eyes wide. “D...Detective? E...Everyone?” She shot forward but Harry and Allen quickly grabbed her before she made herself a target, though that didn’t stop her from shouting at the akuma.

“You beast! Why did you kill everyone? Why?”

“It’s not gonna hear you, Officer,” Harry said grimly. “It’s not doing this because it wants to. It’s programmed this way.”

Moore jammed a shaking figure at the akuma. “T...That’s just a killing machine,” she cried.

“No,” Allen said, his face serious as it always was whenever he discussed akuma.

“An akuma is a living weapon that has a soul implemented in it. The soul is then controlled by the creator, the Millennium Earl, a person who has no faith in life, who hates their looks, and who hates to face reality. It is frustration of the soul that becomes the source of energy that drive an akuma to evolve.” Allen gestured to the akuma, adding, “Even in that akuma, a soul has been implemented. Someone that had a special bond with Mark.”

Harry tuned out the rest of Allen’s explanation and only half paid attention to Moore talking about her sister Claire, the woman that Mark obviously loved and lost.

He focused on the akuma that was still firing at the area in front of them, not seeming to concern itself with the people that were crouched, hidden partially, by a broken pillar behind it. It was only a level one so he and Allen could handle it easily; the only reason he hadn’t earlier was because it’d happened too fast.

“You mean...that’s Claire! That’s my sister,” Moore cried, causing the akuma to turn to face them.

Allen stood up and strode forward, holding his deformed red arm in front of him as it blazed green. Harry decided to let Allen take care of this akuma and placed his free hand on Moore’s shoulder. “Let’s move back a ways,” he whispered.

Moore, still shell-shocked to find out that the akuma was her sister, nodded numbly and the two of them moved further back “W...Will he be okay?” she stammered out.

“He’ll be fine,” Harry assured her, turning just in time to see Allen’s arm grow into the silver-clawed arm.

“You poor akuma,” Allen murmured and jumped forward, crashing the silver claws straight though the akuma before it could fire off a single shot.

“Rest in peace, Miss Claire,” was heard as Allen sliced his clawed hand upward and the akuma shattered in a violent explosion of dark energy.

**. . .**

Out of gratitude for saving her life and freeing the soul of her sister, Moore had paid for Allen and Harry to spend the night at an inn within the city. Now it was morning and the two of them were heading toward the Black Order Headquarters.

None of them were quite prepared for the tall mountain on top of which was the headquarters, the same tall mountain that they, apparently, had to climb.

“This is bloody crazy,” Harry groaned as he struggled to pull himself a few feet closer to the edge of the cliff above. Allen was a few meters above him.

“How else are we going to get to the headquarters?” he replied, sounding just as winded as Harry felt.

“Anything is better than this. Seriously? Do these people actually expect all new Exorcists to do this?” Harry grumbled.

“I don’t know but we’re here,” Allen said, grasping the edge of the cliff and pulling himself onto the ledge. He turned around and stretched out a hand toward Harry once he got within reaching distance. Harry grasped the hand with one hand and climbed the rest of the way with the other and his feet. With Allen’s help, he managed to pull himself onto the top of the cliff and just lay flat on his stomach panting.

“I never want to do that again,” he said firmly.

“Agreed,” Allen said, shifting until he was seated cross-legged on the ground and turning to Timcampy who was floating beside him. “This is it, right, Tim?”

Timcampy nodded.

“The surroundings do have a weird feeling to them,” Allen commented as he pushed himself to his feet and gazed around at the headquarters, the fence, the black golems that fluttered around.

“Agreed. It’s weird,” Harry said, not moving.

Allen nudged Harry with his foot.

“Okay, okay, I’m getting up,” the emerald-eyed boy groaned and climbed to his feet. “Ow. You would think I’d be used to this kind of exercise after everything the git, I mean...no, I mean git, Cross put us through this past year.”

“Try training under him for three years,” Allen said.

Harry shuddered violently at the very thought.

**. . .**

Within the Black Order Headquarters, a crowd of people were gathered in a large room watching the arrival of the two newcomers. Among them was a tall man in a long white coat over a light blue turtleneck sweater and white pants. His name was Komui Lee and he was the Branch Chief of the European Branch of the Black Order. He had dark eyes and long dark hair that curled at the end and a pair of wire-frame pentagonal glasses resting on the bridge of his nose. He was currently sipping at coffee from a mug with a rabbit on it, watching the newcomers with a small frown on his face.

“Who are those kids?” one of the scientists in the room, a man with sandy blond hair named Reever Wenhamm, said, turning to look at Komui.

The dark-haired man adjusted his glasses. “No, no, no, you can’t let outsiders come in here. Why didn’t you stop them?” he protested.

“But, Supervisor Komui, this guy seems a little different than a normal outsider,” Reever said.

Komuil’s little sister, Lenalee, leaned toward the screen. She was a young lithe girl of about sixteen with dark-green, almost black, hair in two mid-back length pigtails, and purple eyes; she was dressed in a tight short black-and-white jacket with long sleeves, a mid-thigh length skirt, and thigh-high black boots that were her Innocence.

“Look here, Brother,” she said, turning her head to Komui and pointed at the golden golem that was one the screen. “Those boys…they’re accompanied by General Cross’s golem.”

Komuil blinked in surprise. He had not been expecting that. _Does that mean General Cross is actually still alive?_ He thought.

“ _Excuse me!_ ” The white-haired called before anyone could respond to Lenalee’s words. “ _I’m Allen Walker and this is Harry Potter. We were sent here by General Cross Marian._ ”

Reever glanced at Komui. “Have you heard anything about this?” he asked.

Komui sipped at his drink. “Nope,” he said because he hadn’t. If anything, the general should have sent a letter or something telling him that he had sent those two boys there.

Reever sighed and spoke into the golem. “Take the examination from the gatekeeper behind both of you,” he said as it was necessary to ensure that the boys weren’t akuma in disguise.

The group watched as the gatekeeper examined the two boys. “ _X-Ray Examination. Determining whether subjects are akuma or human,_ ” the gatekeeper said and examined them but, to the crowd’s surprise, it said, “ _They won’t show up? Are they bugs?_ ”

The crowd exchanged worried looks.

Suddenly, the gatekeeper shrieked, “ _Both of them are outta here! They’re akuma! They are friends of the Millennium Earl!_ ”

“ _What the bloody hell is up with this thing? I am not an akuma!_ ” the boy with the messy black hair cried.

“ _Eh?_ ” was the only thing the white-haired boy could say in shock.

The crowed barely heard the boys’ reaction as they were too busy panicking amongst themselves, surprised to find that two akuma had actually appeared at the gates. Lenalee looked worried and Komui, not liking the look of worry on his precious little sister’s face, quickly thought about what to do.

“ _This guy is a bug! The pentacle on his forehead is cursed. He’s out! And the other boy, he has a fragment of something attached to him! He’s out too!_ ” the gatekeeper cried.

“ _What?!_ ” the messy black-haired boy shouted and Komui could hear the utter shock and disbelief in the boy’s voice. He had to admit the boy was a pretty good actor. The other boy, the one with the white hair and the pentacle above his left eye, just seemed in shock.

As the intruder alarm sounded, Reever suddenly asked, “Hey, are the exorcists in the building…?” but was cut off by Lenalee.

“It’s okay. Kanda is already on it,” she said.

**. . .**

_A fragment of something attached to me? What the hell is that thing talking about?_ Harry thought in confusion and looked at Allen who just seemed in shock. He was about to say something to his unofficial little brother when a shadow fell over them. He whipped his head around and his eyes widened when a figure in black-and-white with long dark-blue hair in a high ponytail and angled eyes that suggested Asian descent shot down toward them. He landed on the ground, a scabbard held in his hand and a dangerous look in his eyes.

Allen swallowed while Harry stared, half afraid by the sudden appearance and half wondering why the heck the guy—he was clearly a guy—had such long hair.

“You sure have courage, coming here with only one ally,” he said, his hand resting on the hilt poking out of the scabbard and he slowly pulled a curved katana out of the scabbard.

“Bloody hell, we’re in trouble,” Harry said, pulling out his wand.

“W...Wait a minute! I think you’ve mistaken me for some...” Allen began but was abruptly cut off when the newcomer leapt at him, slashing toward him.

Harry dove and barrel rolled out of the way and back to his feet, wand in hand and the Innocence activated around its handle and his wrist. Focusing on one of the few spells that he could cast verblessly, as he had taught himself to do since actually having to say the words did give away his position, he threw an emerald green stunning charm at the dark-blue haired boy.

The boy dodged out of the way and Harry caught sight of Allen crouched by the gatekeeper, his own Innocence activated and held defensively in front of him though Harry saw a long gash in it. “He damaged it,” Harry murmured to himself but pulled himself back into the moment as he threw another Innocence powered stunning charm at the boy, forcing the boy to dance almost gracefully out of the way.

Harry darted to Allen’s side, holding his wand out in front of him, the glowing strings that snaked around his wrist and the hilt of the wand shining brightly.

The boy rested his katana horizontally in front of him, two of his fingers resting on the blade. “You, what’s with that arm? And that stick, it looks like it’s powered by Innocence,” he said coolly.

“That’s because it is, git,” Harry said flatly.

“This is my anti-akuma weapon,” Allen added.

“We’re Exorcists,” Harry explained.

The boy frowned. “What?” He then gave a dangerous glare to the gatekeeper. “Gatekeeper!”

“But...well, if I can’t determine their insides, how can we know for sure? What if he is an akuma?” The gatekeeper protested.

“I’m a human,” Allen cried. “Well, I’m a little cursed but I’m still human!”

“I’m not cursed. I have no idea why the bloody hell you don’t think I’m human,” Harry said irritably.

“Hmph, well, whatever,” the boy said. “If I check your insides, we’ll know for sure.” He ran his fingers along the length of his katana’s blade, causing it to glow.

“Innocence activate. I shall slice you with Mugen,” he said and shot forward.

“Wait, you should have gotten a letter of recommendation from Master Cross!” Allen exclaimed while Harry tightened his grip on his wand, the shield charm incantation resting on his lips since that was one spell he hadn’t learned how to cast verblessly yet.

The tip of the katana ended millimeters away from Allen’s forehead.

“A letter of recommendation from the General?” the boy said.

“Yeah,” Harry said, eyeing the katana that was resting far too close to his little brother’s face and preparing to cast a verbless stunning charm if the boy moved his katana at all. “He said that it would be addressed to someone named Komui.”

**. . .**

Back in the room where the crowd was observing the entire conflict, everyone turned as one to stare at Komui.

“You there,” Komui said, pointing to one of the scientists and then pointed to his desk, which was piled high with papers. “Search my desk.”

“That...That...” The scientist groaned but moved toward it anyway.

“Brother,” Lenalee said with a sigh.

“Supervisor Komui,” Reever said with a sweatdrop.

“Er, I’ll help too,” Komui shouted and darted after the scientist.

They spent a good ten minute searching but, eventually, they found it.

“I found it, sir,” the scientist said, holding up a crumpled letter.

“Read it,” Komui said, throwing the papers he’d been searching through over his shoulder.

“’To Komui,’” the scientist began. “’I will be sending two kids, one named Allen and the other named Harry, over there. Thanks. From Cross.’”

“Right, so it’s true,” Komui said nonchalantly. “Reever, stop Kanda.”

“Clean your desk once and a while!” Reever shouted back and then, with an exasperated sigh, spoke into the golem. “Kanda, stop your attack!”

Komui turned to Lenalee and smiled at er. “Lenalee, help me set up,” he said. “Two new members have arrived.”

Komui smiled to himself as he watched his sister move off to begin preparations, as well as make sure Kanda actually stopped his attack. _Two boys sent by Cross, huh?_ He thought. _I’ll have some fun judging them._

**. . .**

“Open the gate?” the gatekeeper said in confusion.

“ _Yes._ ”

“Very well,” the gatekeeper said.

The voice from the black golem sounded again, addressing Allen and Harry this time. “ _We allow you two to pass, Allen Walker, Harry Potter,_ ” the voice said and the gates opened behind the three of them.

The dark-blue haired boy, Kanda apparently, moved his blade closer to Allen while Harry pointed his wand at Kanda but stopped when Kanda began speaking again.

“Komui, what is going on here?” he demanded.

“ _I’m sorry. Simply put, these children are General Cross’s pupils. Say sorry, Reever, go on, go on!_ ”

“ _You make it sound like it was all my fault!_ ” Another voice exclaimed.

“ _Timcampy is with them. That is the proof. He is on our side,_ ” the first voice said.

Kanda narrowed his eyes, not lowering the blade.

Harry was still watching Kanda, not making a move and most likely waiting for Kanda to make a move while Allen just swallowed nervously, his eyes fixed on the blade at his head.

None of them noticed the appearance of the newcomer until a clipboard suddenly smacked into Kanda’s head.

“Gosh, I told you to stop. If you don’t come in soon, I’m going to close the gate,” a beautiful girl with dark-green hair in pigtails said, standing in front of them with the clipboard held in both of her hands.

The girl frowned when the three of them, staring at her in confusion—Harry and Allen—or irritation—Kanda—and didn’t move and pointed at the gate. “Enter,” she said firmly.

The three of them followed the girl as she led the way past the gates and into the white-tiled entrance hall of the headquarters.

“I’m Lenalee,” the dark-green haired girl said. “The assistant to the supervisor. I’ll be taking you to him.”

“Nice to meet you,” Allen said politely and turned to Kanda. “Oh, Kanda, that was your name, right? Nice to meet you as well.” He held out a hand.

Kanda gave him a look. “Who the hell would want to shake hands with a cursed person?” he said and strode off.

“Git,” Harry huffed while Allen just stared.

“I’m sorry about him,” Lenalee said with an exasperated smile. “He just got back from his mission and he’s a bit tired.”

“That’s no excuse whatsoever,” Harry huffed. _Reminds me a little of Malfoy,_ he thought.

“C’mon, let me show you around the place and then I’ll take you to the supervisor,” Lenalee said and led the way deeper into the headquarters. She showed them places like the cafeteria and the lounge as well as telling them that the training room floor was on the third level.

As they walked after the girl, Harry, gazing around and marveling at just how complex the Black Order headquarters was, leaned toward Allen. “Five guineas says you get lost within five minutes,” he murmured.

Allen flushed. “Shut up, Harry,” he murmured back.

Harry grinned and ruffled Allen’s hair, ignoring the exasperated look Allen gave him for that. Allen wasn’t as distant or polite around Harry anymore and Harry found that he preferred that to the perpetual distant sadness that seemed to exude off him when he was in the presence of others.

“There are other places too,” Lenalee said from where she was walking a few feet ahead of them. “There’s the sanatorium, the library”— _Hermione would love that—_ “and individual rooms. I’ll take you to those later on.”

“We get our own rooms?” Allen said surprised.

“All Exorcists go off to their missions from here,” Lenalee explained. “So some people call this base ‘home’. There are some who purposefully don’t come back here though.”

“Cross,” Harry muttered.

_A home, huh?_ Allen thought with a small smile.

They neared a floor down which were rooms marked with characters Allen couldn’t make out, cracked walls and ceilings, and liquids that Allen couldn’t begin to name scattered on the floor. “What kinds of rooms are on this floor?” he asked curiously.

“Looks like a potions’ lab gone wrong,” Harry muttered just loud enough for Allen to hear.

“You don’t need to know,” Lenalee said.

“Why?” the white-haired boy asked.

“You just don’t. Okay, let’s get going.”

Allen studied the room and Harry nudged him and gestured toward Lenalee who was making her way down the stairs. “If we lose her, we’ll never be able to find our way to the supervisor,” Harry murmured.

“Ah, right,” Allen said, tearing his gaze away from the hallway and he and Harry trailed after Lenalee down the stairs.

They met Komui Lee, the supervisor of the European Branch of the Black Order, halfway down the stairs. He greeted them while holding a cup of coffee in one hand and adjusting his glasses with the other. “Hello, how are you doing today? I am Komui Lee, Supervisor of the Scientific Group and Head of the European Branch. I welcome you, Allen, Harry. There was a little trouble earlier, eh?”

They headed down the stairs and Komui led them to one of the rooms. “You may stay out here,” he said to Harry and entered the room with Allen and Lenalee right behind him.

Once they were in a room that resembled a doctor’s office, Komui said, “So can you show me your arm?”

“Huh?” Allen blinked.

“A while ago, you were attacked by Kanda and your weapon was damaged. No need to hold back,” Komui said.

Allen blinked but removed the white glove and held it out for Komui to see. He leaned over and studied it. “Hmm, looks like the nerve cords are damaged. Lenalee, bring me the anesthesia,” he said.

As Lenalee moved away, the supervisor turned to Allen and said, “Can you activate it?”

“Ah, sure,” Allen said. _Activate_ , he thought and watched as the silver-clawed arm, with the gash in it, morphed into existence.

“Hmm, you’re a parasitic type. The rarest of all the types out there. Well,” Komui stepped back and, to Allen’s shock, pulled out a huge _drill_ out of nowhere. “Since a parasitic-type weapon synchronizes with the body, it’s more likely to get affected.”

“W...Whats with all that gear?” Allen asked worriedly.

“Hmm? To repair your arm with,” Komui said and activated the drill, causing Allen to pale in fright. “It’s a little shocking, actually. If you don’t want to experience trauma, you better not look.”

“W...Wait...” Allen began.

Komui ignored him.

And, at that precise moment as agony ripped through his veins when Komui went to work on fixing his arm, Allen vowed to never damage his arm again.

**. . .**

Harry started at the scream that erupted from the room and glanced toward it worriedly.

“It began,” the sandy-blonde haired man murmured.

“How horrifying,” another scientist said.

“What’s happening?” Harry asked confused, eyeing the door worriedly.

“Don’t worry. Supevisor Komui is just fixing your friend’s arm,” the sandy-blonde haired man said. He held out a hand and added, “I’m Reever by the way and this Tap.”

“Oh, nice to meet you. I’m Harry Potter,” Harry said, shaking Reever’s hand in greeting and wincing when he heard his unofficial little brother scream again.

**. . .**

“Brother, after this, you’re going to that place, right? To check if Allen is human or not? Just in case?” Lenalee asked.

“Hmm? Nah, it’s okay. He’s human,” Komui said as he continued to work on the semi-conscious Allen.

“How do you know?”

A sad smile crossed Komui’s face. “In this world, the only organisms that can get cursed are humans,” he murmured.

**. . .**

“You look terrible,” Harry said, eyeing Allen worriedly as the two of them trailed after Komui onto an odd upside-down pyramid shaped elevator that slowly began to lower into the darkness that the headquarters seemed to encircle.

Allen gave Harry a deadpanned look but said nothing.

“Your arm won’t move because of the anesthesia but it’s all fixed,” Komui said cheerfully.

Allen reaffirmed his promise to never damage his arm again.

They reached the bottom and a voice boomed around them as a bright light filled the area.

“You possess the Innocence of God,” one voice said.

“The power of all intellectual omnipotence,” another voice said.

“Yet again, I have gotten my hands on a God,” a third voice said.

“These are the High Generals in charge of the Order,” Komui said and turned to Allen and Harry. “Now you two need to show your value to these people.”

“Huh?” Allen said.

“What he said,” Harry said puzzled.

Just then, snake-like glowing arms snaked around Allen’s form and he yelped as he was dragged off the elevator’s platform.

“Allen!” Harry shouted, pulling out his wand only for one of the glowing tentacles to reach for the wand and take it out of his hand. “Hey!”

“What…?” Allen looked at the odd face-less glowing white being with tentacles jutting out of its body, some of those tentacles were wrapped around him and seemed to be coiling around his arm. The there was also one tentacle that was holding Harry’s wand.

“Inno...cence,” the feminine voice sounded from the creature and Allen gritted his teeth as he felt the tentacles start to probe his arm.

_What is this? Innocence, activate,_ he thought but it didn’t really work out so well.

“Impossible. The anesthesia won’t wear off until tomorrow. Your arm won’t move.”

“Komui...” Allen gritted his teeth.

“Your Innocence is really beautiful, Allen,” Komui added cheerfully. “How is it, Hevlaska? How is this apostle of God? Does he satisfy your needs?”

_This feels terrible. What is this? It’s almost as if it’s searching inside my body,_ Allen thought and tried to will his arm to move, ignoring the fact that Komui told him that it wouldn’t. Eventually, though, it did but not without causing severe agony to rush through him

He screamed

Hevlaska hummed. “Ama...amazing. He overcame the anesthesia,” she murmured and, as Allen’s screams died down, she added, “You...Your nerves are paralyzed. Don...don’t try to push yourself into activating it. Calm down. I am...not your enemy.” She leaned forward and pressed what Allen assumed was her forehead to his.

“Activating your anti-akuma weapon is very dangerous when you’re not fully synchronized.” She then began counting down. “2%...16%...30...41...58...78...83%!”

His left arm returned to normal and Allen blinked at it in confusion as Hevlaska spoke again.

“You are all right now...It looks like 83% is your...maximum synchronization percentage...with your weapon,” she said.

“Synchronization percentage? What’s that?” Harry asked, looking relieved and confused at once.

“It’s the life line for the anti-akuma weapon activation,” Hevlaska explained as she stretched out the tentacles and gently returned Allen to the platform as she added, “The lower the synchronization percentage, the harder it is to activate and the user may become endangered. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was just...trying to get to know your Innocence.”

“Get to know my Innocence?” Allen echoed.

Hevlaska nodded and then turned over Harry’s wand a few times in its tentacle. “And now...I will do this one,” she said and began probing the wand. “2%...16%...31...45...67...82%! It looks like 82% is you…maximum synchronization percentage…with your weapon,” she said, holding out the wand to Harry who took it and studied it curiously.

Hevlaska then turned to face Allen. “Allen Walker...sometime in the black future, your Innocence will create an extraordinary ‘Destroyer of Time’,” she said and then turned to face Harry and added, “Harry Potter…sometime in the black future, your Innocence will create an extraordinary ‘Protector of Destruction’. That is what I have felt. That is my power.”

“Destroyer?” Allen echoed.

“Protector of Destruction?” Harry echoed.

The sound of clapping came to them. “How amazing,” Komui said and Allen and Harry turned as one to look at Komui. “That is probably true! Hevlaska’s fortune-telling is correct most of the time. Hehehe, we can count on you two, Allen, Harry.”

“Komui,” Allen murmured and then drove a fist toward Komui’s face at the same time that Harry growled out “ _expelliarmus!_ ” The clipboard in Komui’s hand went flying and Allen was satisfied when his fist connected with Komui’s face, throwing him to the ground.”

“You sure have one hell of a punch!” Komui said cheerfully as he winced and clutched at his jaw.

Harry scowled. “Can I stun him? I want to stun him,” he growled, pointing his wand at Komui.

“Sorry, sorry!” Komui said quickly, rubbing his jaw. “You were surprised, eh? You were scared, I know, I know. Hevlaska does have a scary face.” Standing up and still rubbing his jaw while picking up his clipboard, Komui added, “Exorcists who join must be examined by Hevlaska. Those are the rules.”

“Then why didn’t you tell us that?!” Harry exclaimed.

“Please mention those kinds of things beforehand!” Allen exclaimed at the same time and ran a hand through his hair. Since he already knew most of the story about Noah’s Flood and what Innocence really was, mostly because Harry had managed to annoy Cross enough to finally get him to tell them just to get Harry to shut up—Harry had really just wanted to know about Innocence but Cross, irritated and not wanting Harry to ask him any more questions, reluctantly told them all of that—but he didn’t exactly know what the Black Order really did. It wasn’t as if Cross actually did his job, other than find Innocence fragments at times and that was rare in and of itself. “So Master never exactly explained what Exorcists really do.”

“We seek out fragments of Innocence and ensure that we get to them before the Earl does,” Komui explained. “There are 109 fragments in all and we are to wake up the people who contain the Innocence and gather an army to counter the army of akuma created by the Millennium Earl. The earl is on the move to find the people with Innocence and destroy them. It’s a race to obtain the Innocence. If we lose the race, it will cause the world to end.”

“Well then, that’s about it for the explanation,” Komui said and held out one hand to Allen and another to Harry. “Let’s fight together to save the world. You won’t make any money doing this though.”

Allen smiled. “Sure,” he said and took Komui’s hand.

“No pressure, eh?” Harry said with a smile and took Komui’s other hand and Allen could tell that his irritation toward the scientist had evaporated, probably because Allen had managed to land a hit as payback for what happened earlier and because Komui had apologized.

“Welcome to the Black Order,” Komui said. He released Allen’s hand and added, “Right now, with you two in our group, we have found twenty Exorcists. Most are around the world working on different missions but you’ll soon be able to meet them all.”

He gestured to Hevlaska and added, “By the way, Hevlaska is an Exorcist too.”

“What?” Allen said.

“I am a different...Type than you guys but I am a compatible person..for a cube...Ever since the teachings started, I have been a keeper of Innocence. I have...met with many Exorcists,” Hevlaska said and turned to Harry and Allen. “Allen, Harry, may God be with you.”

**. . .**

“And these are your rooms,” Lenalee said.

Harry and Allen, the former of whom was teasing the latter on the fact that he probably would never be able to find his way to his room again without Tim, came to a stop just behind Lenalee. They looked at the two doors that the dark-green haired girl had gestured to and looked at each other.

“Breakfast will start serving at around seven tomorrow morning,” Lenalee added, turning to them and giving them a kind smile. “Welcome to the Black Order.”

“Thank you,” Allen said with a polite smile.

After Lenalee left, Harry, after promising to come and wake up Allen in the morning to guide him to the cafeteria so that he wouldn’t get lost since Tim had vanished some time ago, disappeared into his own room. Allen sighed and opened the door to his room before making his way into it and laying down on the bed, gazing up at the ceiling.

“Whew, it’s been a long day,” he said, curling his arm under his back and closing his eyes, his mind drifting to his time with Mana.

“Finally, I’m at the starting line,” he said quietly. “Don’t stop walking. Keep moving forth.”

_I don’t care about fate. I_ _h_ _ave chosen this path myself,_ he thought as his thoughts drifted to his time with Mana, including Mana’s final words to him as well as the last time he had seen him and had heard his last words toward him. Even if they did still cause him pain, they also strengthened him, reminding him of what he had promised to himself the day he had decided to become an Exorcist.

“I promise, whatever the cost, I won’t stop walking,” Allen said softly, not opening his eyes. “I will keep walking until I die.”

**. . .**

Harry gazed out the window of his small room at the land that lay beyond. With how high up he was, it felt as if he was in the clouds and it made him think about all the times he’d flown in the air on his broom. Thinking about flying on a broom made him think of Quidditch and that made him think about the future he’d left behind.

A year had gone by but Harry still remembered the time that he came from and still held on to those memories even as he navigated and adjusted to the world he was currently stuck in. It wasn’t that he was mad about being stuck in the past, nor did he resent it; he just missed Hogwarts and all the friends that he’d made there.

Neville, Ginny, Fred, George, Remus, Luna, Dumbledore, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, everyone that managed to find a place in Harry’s heart that were in the future, probably thinking he was dead.

He found his thoughts drifting to the Seer Cassandra Trelawney’s words again, his mind latching on to when Trelawney had told him to not let go, or break, the bonds that he created in the time he was stuck in.

He had no intention of doing that.

Just because he was in a place where he just didn’t belong, displaced from his own time, that didn’t mean that he would suddenly forget about anyone that had managed to become his friend or more than that. He had friends and people he saw as family in the future and he had Allen, a friend whom he saw as family, here in the past.

And now he was officially part of the Black Order, officially an Exorcist who used their power to fight akuma and the Millennium Earl and save the world from destruction. Some might think that this wasn’t his war so he shouldn’t have to take part in it but Harry knew that it was his war, from the moment the Innocence chose him and gave him the power to actually battle and destroy akuma. He knew that, once he had the power to actually help, he couldn’t just stand aside and do nothing.

He was not like that. A perfect example of his resolve was the fact that he was willing to fight against Voldemort, and had gone against him twice in the past, if it meant stopping more families from being torn apart like his had been and more innocent people from being killed.

Harry knew that it wasn’t going to be easy. He had no doubt that the Millennium Earl was going to be a dangerous and powerful enemy but that didn’t break his resolve.

He was a Gryffindor; he was brave enough to take on the challenge that lay ahead of him.

He didn’t know of what the future held for him and knew that Hevlaska’s prediction about it being a ‘black’ future was probably true, considering that he had stepped onto the edge of war the instant he officially joined the Black Order. That wasn’t going to stop him though.

Harry lifted his wand and held it above him, studying the glowing green cross in its handle, and smiled softly to himself. “What Mana told Allen is something that I can agree to as well,” he commented quietly. “Don’t stop, keep walking, keep moving forward.”

**. . .**

_Next Time: Ghosts of Peaceful Song_

**. . .**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind Cassandra Trelawney and her words. That is all.


	5. Ghosts of Peaceful Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Allen and Kanda do not get along, Allen and Harry get their first mission, and Innocence proves itself to be even weirder than they had anticipated.

**5**

**Ghosts of Peaceful Song**

Morning dawned on the second day since Allen and Harry had arrived at the Black Order’s Headquarters and Allen was exercising in his room. He was currently balanced with one hand resting on the back a chair resting on two legs; his body was upside down and straight as a board. He counted quietly under his breath as he lowered himself down and back up.

“289...290...291...” He said, not even breaking a sweat.

A knock sounded on his door and Allen stopped for a moment. “Come in,” he called and went back to his one-handed push-ups, murmuring, “292...293...294...295...296...297...”

The door opened and Harry poked his head into the room, blinked, and sighed. “I still have no idea how you can even do that without falling over,” he said, stepping into the room and closing it behind him. He was already dressed for the day in a long sleeved pale-blue collared shirt and black slacks.

“Practice,” Allen said, as he finished off the last of his one-handed push-ups. “298...299...300.” With that last number, he flipped off the chair to land lightly on his feet as the chair clattered back to rest in all four legs.

Harry shook his head. “I don’t think I could ever do that. Ready to head to breakfast?” he asked.

Allen’s eyes lit up at the mention of food. “Sure thing,” he said, stretching his arms above his head and moving over to his bed. He finished dressing, tying a red ribbon around his neck and putting a black vest over his white button-up shirt, and followed Harry as he led the way outside.

“So how are you adjusting, Allen?” he asked, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his slacks.

“Well enough, and you?” Allen asked as they meandered their way around a few tired people that were slowly making their way down the hallway toward the stairs.

“The same. This place...it’s kinda odd that it reminds me a little of Hogwarts,” Harry admitted only loud enough for the white-haired boy to hear him. “I mean it’s not a big castle but it’s got that same feeling, a kinda homely feeling.”

“Lenalee did say that many Exorcists see headquarters as home,” Allen pointed out.

“True but I just didn’t think I’d get that feeling over a place that I’ve only been in for a day,” Harry said, tilting his head up to look at the floor of the walkway above their heads. “Hogwarts has always been a home to me, yeah, so I’m a bit surprised that I feel so comfortable here.”

“Why can’t you have two homes?”Allen asked. “One for while you’re here and one for if, or when, you return.”

“That’s true, I suppose, though I have to wonder just what’s going on where I come from,” Harry admitted, lowering his head as they started down the stairs to one of the lower levels.

Allen shook his head. “I can’t say that I know,” he said.

“It’s been over a year in this time. I wonder if that’s how much time has passed by in the other time,” Harry murmured and Allen could see worry on his face. While he didn’t know everything that had happened in the future that his friend came from, he knew that Harry had been in the middle of a battle when he was thrown into the past. It was clear that he was worried about the outcome of that battle and what else might have happened afterwards.

“I’m sure everything is fine, Harry,” the white-haired boy said with a reassuring smile.

“But what if it isn’t? Damn it, what if something went wrong?” Harry snapped back.

Allen, used to Harry’s tendency to snap, just said quietly, “Thinking in the negative won’t get you anywhere, it will only drag you down. If you focus too much on the negative, you start to lose yourself to your worries over events that you have no control over and you won’t be able to move forward. You need to hold onto the positive because that will give you the hope that will allow you to overcome your worry and keep walking.”

Harry swallowed and Allen watched his irritation fade from his face as he sighed. “Yeah, you’re right, Allen. I’m sorry. I didn’t...”

“It’s okay,” Allen said with a soft patient smile and then looked around. “So, ah, where’s the cafeteria?”

Harry chuckled.

The two walked in silence down a few more flights of stairs before they reached the floor on which was the cafeteria. As they walked toward the cafeteria’s doors, Allen spotted Lenalee, yawning, heading in their direction. “Good morning, Lenalee,” he greeted the dark-green haired girl politely as he moved forward and opened the door for her.

“Good morning, Allen, thank you, and good morning to you too, Harry,” she said.

“Morning,” Harry said and Lenalee walked into the cafeteria. Allen gestured for Harry to go next and the messy black-haired boy chuckled and followed Lenalee with Allen bringing up the rear of the group.

“You can get your food over there. Our head chief is named Jerry,” Lenalee said, pointing to the window out of which a pink-haired dark-skinned man was pushing plates of food and smiling cheerfully.

“Thank you,” Allen said, looking eager at the thought of getting food. He always was. To him, food was paradise. He and Harry walked over to get in line while Lenalee slipped past everyone and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Here’s the B-Set,” Jerry said, pushing a plate toward the finder in front of Harry and Allen. “What’s next?”

Allen and Harry moved forward and Jerry blinked. “Hmm. A new recruit? Wow, and what a pretty kid!” he exclaimed upon seeing Allen.

Allen blinked while Harry bit his lip, trying to suppress his smile.

“Oh and you? Another new recruit? You’re just as cute,” Jerry exclaimed upon seeing Harry who blushed and sputtered while Allen resisted the urge to snicker himself.

“Nice to meet both of you. What do you two want to eat? I can make anything!” the pink-haired chief added curiously.

“Anything?” Allen and Harry echoed.

Jerry nodded.

“Then Harry, you may order first,” Allen said since he was polite, which he had grown to be after spending so long with Mana, and because his order would take longer to list.

“All right,” Harry said. “Um, okay, I’ll just have eggs, bacon, and toast with strawberry marmalade.”

“Okay, cutie. I’ll get that right out for you. And you?” Jerry said, turning to Allen.

Allen tapped his finger to his lip in thought. “Okay, I’ll get lasagna and potatoes and dry curry and ma-po tofu and beef stew and a meat pie and calpaccho and a nashigoren and chicken and potato salad and corn and a kuppa, tomyank and rice. Oh, and for dessert, I want a mango pudding and a mitarashi dango, no make that twenty mitarashi dango,” he said.

Jerry stared. “You can eat all that?” he said stunned.

“If you call what he does eating,” Harry teased.

“ _What did you say?_ ” A shout sounded before Allen could respond and he turned to find a finder standing up and shouting at someone in front of him. “You wanna say that again?”

“Stop it, Buzz!” Another finder protested.

Allen frowned and moved forward to see what was going on. He spotted the dark-blue haired form of Kanda putting his chopsticks down on his bowl. “Be quiet,” he said in a low voice that belayed his boredom with the topic. His chin was resting on his knuckles and his elbow was resting on the table beside his tray. “My meal tastes bad when you’re talking about dead people.”

“Is that how you show respect for your comrades?” Buzz exclaimed in anger. “We, finders, support you with our lives and you...you...you’re saying your meal tastes bad!” He swung a fist toward Kanda but the Asian boy dodged out of the way and then grabbed the finder’s neck, a cool sneer crossing his lips.

“’Support us’?” he repeated. “All you can do is ‘support’ us. You guys are the ones who weren’t chosen to carry the Innocence.” He tightened his grip as Allen strode forward and Harry hurried after him, frowning at Kanda.

“He reminds me of Malfoy,” he muttered under his breath.

“If you don’t want to die, run away. Your insignificant life can be replaced at any time,” Kanda said coolly.

Allen stepped in between them and grabbed Kanda’s arm with his left hand. “Stop it,” he said and Kanda looked at him. “I’m sorry to interrupt you when I have nothing to do with this but I don’t think this is a good way of resolving things.”

Kanda became disinterested. “Back off, _Moyashi,_ ” he said.

_Moyashi?_ “I’m Allen,” Allen said.

“Heh, if you don’t die within the next month, I’ll remember your name. There are many that die here, like these guys,” Kanda said.

Allen tightened his grip on Kanda’s wrist, forcing him to release Buzz’s throat. “As I said, that’s not a good thing to say,” he said.

“You’re gonna die soon. I hate your type,” Kanda said, glaring at Allen.

“Well, thank you,” Allen replied, glaring back at Kanda.

Fiery auras seemed to appear around them as the tension increased and everyone in the nearby vicinity chose that moment to get out of range. Harry was the only one who stayed, though he did edge backwards while eyeing Allen warily.

“Kanda! Allen! Harry!” Reever shouted, breaking into the moment and Allen and Kanda turned as one to look at the sandy blonde haired boy who was walking in front of Lenalee carrying a stack of books.

“Eat your food in ten minutes and come to the command post. You’ve got a mission,” Reever added.

Harry blinked. “Already?” he said.

“Such is the life of an Exorcist,” Lenalee said with a smile.

“Well, okay. C’mon, Allen, leave the git alone and let’s eat,” Harry said, placing a hand on Allen’s arm.

Kanda’s eye twitched. “What did you just call me?” he demanded, his hand snaking toward the hilt of his sword.

“You heard me, git,” Harry shot back and, muttering something that sounded like “Malfoy incarnate” under his breath, guided Allen away from the furious dark-blue haired Exorcist.

Allen tore his glare away from him and followed suit. “Who’s Malfoy?” he asked once he had calmed down and sat at the table.

“He’s a git that I went to school with. He was one of those arrogant assholes that believed himself to be better than everyone else and we disliked each other from the first moment we met, kinda like you and Kanda,” Harry mused.

“Oh. By the way, what does _Moyashi_ mean anyway?” Allen asked.

One of the finders that they were sitting beside overheard Allen’s question and leaned forward. “It’s Japanese. It means ‘beansprout’,” he explained.

Allen’s eye twitched at that. _I am not a beansprout,_ he thought but his irritation vanished when Jerry came out with his food. His eyes lit up and he happily began digging in, practically inhaling all of the food in front of him.

“It’s a wonder you haven’t choked on something,” Harry commented.

“How can he eat all of that?” the finder that had answered Allen’s question asked in bewilderment.

“It’s because of his Innocence. It’s a parasitic-type so he needs to eat a lot to replenish the energy that he loses because of his Innocence,” Harry said. He paused and added, “Right, Allen?”

“Right,” Allen said after swallowing a bit of food and then went back to eating.

**. . .**

“Supervisor? Supervisor Komui!” Reever called, shaking Komui who was passed out asleep on his desk with papers and books scattered around his head. When that didn’t work, he tried striking Komui in the head. Sighing when that didn’t work and throwing an apologetic look at the four that were gathered in front of his desk, he leaned forward and murmured, “Lenalee’s gonna marry someone.”

“Lenalee!” Komui cried, waking up in an instant. “How can you get married without telling your own brother?”

Kanda, Allen, and Lenalee sweatdropped while Harry just stared in surprise.

“Sorry about that,” Reever said. “It’s the only way to wake him up.”

A few minutes passed by before Komui managed to calm down enough to give them a summary of their mission. “Err, sorry about that. I didn’t go to sleep until daybreak so,” Komui said with a sheepish laugh.

“Um, neither did I,” Reever muttered as he worked on putting up some maps and documents up for everyone to see.

“All right, we don’t have much time so after you hear the summaries, move out. If you want more detailed info, just read this while you head to your destination,” Komui said. He picked up two folders of the four that were on his desk and handed them to Allen and Kanda.

The two of them looked at each other in shock as Komui told them that they would be going as partners. When Komui noticed that, he raised an eyebrow. “What? You already aren’t getting along?” he said but then shrugged and pulled down a map that showed the country of Italy. “But no excuses. We’ve found Innocence in Southern Italy, but it may get taken by an akuma. Your job is to destroy the enemy and secure the Innocence.”

“Um, why am I here?” Harry asked.

“We have another mission for you, Harry,” Komui said, picking up the last two folders and handing one to Harry before, after a moment of hesitation, handed the other to Lenalee. “You and Lenalee will be going to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We believe there is an Innocence fragment in a village on the border between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy. Just as with Allen and Kanda, you job is to destroy the akuma and secure the Innocence. But Lenalee! You don’t have to go!” He cried, almost throwing himself over the desk but Lenalee landed a kick into the side of her brother’s head.

“We’ll be fine, Brother,” she said and turned to Harry, smiling at him. “Ready to go?”

“Um, yeah, okay,” Harry said, though he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous since this was his first mission.

“You’ll be fine,” Lenalee assured him.

“Right. Good luck, Allen,” Harry said, turning to Allen and sweatdropping when he noticed Allen and Kanda were glaring at each other again. “Um, Allen?”

“Good luck to you too, Harry,” Allen said not breaking off the tense glaring contest he was having with the Asian boy.

Harry sighed and turned to Lenalee. “I sure hope they don’t kill each other while on this mission,” he said.

“I don’t think they will so don’t worry. Even if it’s clear that Kanda doesn’t seem to like Allen, he will finish his mission,” Lenalee said as the two of them walked out of the office.

Once they reached the underground water path and Harry had changed into his new Exorcist uniform, he adjusted it, noticing that it fit him rather well. It was a black jacket that went to his ankles with white patches on the shoulder, silver buttons, and a silver rose cross resting on his right breast. “So why is this necessary?” he asked.

“It’s required for these kinds of missions,” Lenalee explained. “It’s how we identify ourselves as Exorcists.”

A finder, Harry recognized him as the one who’d answered Allen’s question earlier, approached them, bandages wrapped around his lower face and the hood of his tan cloak covering his head. He was carrying a rectangle pack on his back and Harry caught sight of a coiling cord jutting out of it.

“Hello, Master Exorcists. I’m Conner and I will be accompanying you on this mission,” the finder said.

Lenalee nodded and smiled kindly. “Then let’s get going, Conner,” she said.

“It’s nice to meet you, Conner,” Harry added.

“You as well,” Conner said and led the way to the longboat that rested on the boat. He climbed into it and moved over to stand at the front, grabbing hold of the pole that Harry figured was used to steer it while Lenalee climbed into the boat. Harry joined her; the longboat reminded him a bit of the boats that he had taken across the Black Lake in his first year at Hogwarts.

Even though he’d gotten a little adjusted to his new life in the nineteenth century, he did still miss his life back in the future, back at Hogwarts with Ron, Hermione, Sirius, and all of the friends he had made.

Sure there were some things about the future that he didn’t miss though, such as his relatives and Snape.

“Are you okay, Harry?” Lenalee asked, concern in her purple eyes as the longboat pulled away from the loading area and began its journey down the river with Conner steering it.

“Yeah, I’m fine, why do you ask?” Harry asked.

“You just looked sad all of a sudden.”

“Oh.” Harry chewed on his lower lip but decided to tell the dark-green haired girl the bare minimum of why he felt as he did. “I just miss my friends and my godfather.”

Lenalee smiled sadly. “Were you taken from them?” she asked.

Harry shook his head, a bit surprised that she’d asked that. “No. I got separated from them and somehow ended up in the same town as Allen and Master in Africa where I found out I was an accomodator. Master let me search for them while I was traveling with him and Allen but I wasn’t able to find them.,” he said, deciding to just go with most of the truth. Allen was the only one who knew the entire truth, including about Harry being a wizard, and Harry was going to keep it that way.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Lenalee said with a small frown. “Do you have any idea where they could be?”

Harry shook his head. “I do miss them though and I hope they’re all right. So how are we getting to this village?” he asked. He didn’t really want to talk about his friends and godfather, mostly because he felt that he should focus more on the mission for now.

Lenalee said nothing about Harry’s change in subject. “We’ll be taken the train and then probably a carriage since, according to its location, we won’t be able to take a train directly there,” she said.

“Oh.” _It’s going to take a while to get there. I’m glad that I’m not stuck with Malfoy incarnate though,_ he thought.

**. . .**

_I’m pretty sure this is illegal,_ Allen thought as he landed on the back of the train, nearly losing his grip on the folder containing all the information.

“We’ve always done it this way,” the finder said, pushing himself to his feet and walking down the length of the train until he came across a hatch. “Here, Master Exorcists.”

Kanda, who’d got to his feet nearby, walked over to join the finder without a glance at Allen. The white-haired boy got up as well and followed suit, watching as the finder and Kanda jumped down into the train and followed them, Timcampy flying beside him.

“Excuse me, passengers,” the train attendant said. “This is the first class train, and normal citizens are supposed to be in the second class train. And you guys just came in from there...”

“We’re from the Black Order. Please get a room ready,” the finder said as Allen dropped the remaining feet to the floor.

“The Black...” the train attendant paused, his eyes landing on the crest. “Y...Yes sir.” He quickly bowed while Allen blinked in surprise.

“What was that?” he said puzzled.

“The rose crest you carry on your shoulder is the symbol of the Vatican and it allows you to enter any place you desire,” the finder explained.

Allen glanced at the crest. _Master never told me that. Then again, there’s quite a bit_ _M_ _aster never told me,_ he thought.

“By the way, I will be supporting you until we reach Martel. The name’s Toma. I’m one of the finders. Nice to meet you,” the finder said.

“Oh, nice to meet you too, Toma,” Allen said with a polite smile.

“This way, sirs,” the train attendant said and led the way down the corridor toward the room that he had prepared for them.

Once they were settled in their compartment, Allen opened up his folder and looked through the information again, thinking over the question that he had come up with earlier. “All right, I was wondering: what does this eerie legend have to do with Innocence?” he asked, referring to the legend of the Ghost of Martel.

Kanda gave him a frown. “Che,” he said.

_He just ‘che’ed me!_ Allen thought.

“An Innocence is a substance that has changed over the years, from the time of Noah to the present,” the Asian boy added, leaning against the window and gazing out of it. “In the beginning, it was sunk to the bottom of the sea but as if the power of the stone lured us to it, we discovered it. But its appearance changes every time and it could appear out of nowhere in any form.”

Allen looked up at that.

“The stones always cause eerie illusions for some reason,” Kanda added.

“So that means the ‘ghost of Martel’ might have something to do with Innocence?” Allen asked to clarify.

“Yeah,” Kanda said, returning his gaze to the folder. “’In an eerie place, there lies Innocence’. That’s why the Church investigates these kinds of places, and whenever they feel that there’s a high probability of an Innocence fragment being there, they send us in.”

_Eerie._ Allen thought about the church in Africa that his Master had visited as well as that temple in Madagascar’s forests and mused that those could probably be classified as eerie.

_But just being there, it lures many things to it due to its energy,_ ” he thought as he went back to scanning the information. _If they find an accomodator, like Harry’s did him, it could be turned into an anti-akuma weapon. A weird stone,_ he thought. _If the existence of an Innocence fragment is what’s causing strange things to happen, then what the hell is the ghost of Martel?_

He reached a portion of the information and his eyes went wide with surprise. “The ghost of Martel is this?” he repeated out loud.

“That’s right,” Toma’s voice said from outside the compartment. “I, too, was part of the investigation so I have seen it before. The ghost of Martel is only a doll.”

**. . .**

“I can’t believe I had to jump onto the roof of a moving train,” Harry said, flopping in his seat within the train compartment that the train attendant had led them too. As they had left earlier than Allen and Kanda, they had caught an earlier train but they’d still just missed it and so had to jump onto it.

Lenalee giggled as she sat down across from him. “We would’ve missed it otherwise,” she pointed out.

“This is actually quite normal,” Conner said from outside the door as he had declined it when Harry tried to convince him to join them in the compartment.

_I would say that this is not normal but, given everything that I’ve seen and done since I arrived in the past, I really can’t, especially not after dealing with Cross and seeing Allen’s scary darker side,_ Harry thought. “Would we have boarded it normally if we hadn’t been running late?” he wondered.

“Usually,” Lenalee admitted.

Harry found himself thinking of just how his friends would react if he’d jumped onto the Hogwarts Express if he’d been running late. The only time he’d run late for the Hogwarts Express had been in his second year when Dobby had prevented him from getting onto Platform 9 and ¾. He found himself wondering just how everyone would have reacted had he just jumped onto the train from the Weasley’s flying Ford Aglia instead of flying the car all the way to Hogwarts.

He mused that they probably would have reacted the same exact way, except they would’ve been more concerned since the landing hurts.

“So the village we’re heading toward is called Paluzza,” Lenalee said, sorting through the papers within the folder she’d been given. “According to this, a lot of people have been talking about urban legends about a ghost haunting a cabin known as the Rifugio Alpini. Many have seen strange things in that area. They also constantly hear singing whenever they are five miles from the cabin and they can’t get any closer than that. The finder that found out about this wasn’t able to get close to it either.”

“You think Innocence is causing that? Like somehow protecting itself or something?” Harry asked as he opened up his own folder and flipped through the pages of information, studying the drawn pictures of the cabin and the surrounding mountains as well as a detailed map of a mountain trail leading to it.

“It’s possible. When something that can’t be explained otherwise happens, Innocence is usually the reason behind it,” Lenalee said.

“What about the singing though?” Harry said.

“That’s puzzling me a bit too,” Lenalee admitted. “It’s possible that the Innocence might have already found an accomodator or, maybe, it’s just connected to singing. But one thing that I also find odd is what the finder and the citizens of Paluzza reported hearing. It’s wasn’t an actual song, so to speak; it was Bible verses.”

“Bible verses?” Harry repeated.

Lenalee nodded and held up one of the papers. “Here’s a list of some of the Bible verses that the finder was able to make out. Most of them are in Psalm and they seem rather random, jumping from one Psalms to the next,” she said.

Harry searched through the papers and picked up the one that Lenalee was holding up and read it to himself.

“ _Why do the nations conspire_

_and the peoples plot in vain?_

_The kings of the earth rise up_

_and the rulers band together_

_against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,_

_“Let us break their chains_

_and throw off their shackles.”_

_The One enthroned in heaven laughs;_

_the Lord scoffs at them._

_He rebukes them in his anger_

_and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,..._ ”(1) (Psalm 2:1-5)

“So, according to this finder, these Psalms are actually being sung?” Harry asked, looking up from the one that he was reading. He’d never really looked through a Bible before; his relatives weren’t exactly religious and he wasn’t that much either. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in God; he just had never gone through Sunday school or went to church or anything like that and that was mostly because of his upbringing.

“Yeah,” Lenalee said with a nod. “I don’t know why. When we get to Paluzza, we should ask around and see if anyone has heard anything too before we head up to the cabin itself.”

“What about akuma?” Harry asked.

“If it is Innocence, they’ll be drawn to the cabin,” Lenalee explained. “Though they will also be drawn to us when we arrive so we’ll have to keep an eye out and be vigilant.”

_Constant vigilance,_ Harry though wryly, thinking about Mad-Eye Moody. Even if he didn’t know the real Moody as well as he knew the fake Moody, that was one thing that he always said and really did sum up what being an Exorcist was like. Since Allen was the only one who could actually see an akuma when it was in human form, everyone else had to be constantly vigilant or risk getting stabbed in the back by the enemy.

_Look like I gotta be like Moody if I wanna survive,_ Harry thought and turned his attention back to the papers. “Out of curiosity, if no one else can approach the cabin, will we be able to approach it?” he asked.

“It’s likely if it really is Innocence that’s causing this,” Lenalee said.

“Oh.” Harry fell silent for a long moment and turned to gaze out of the window as the land rolled past.

**. . .**

_It’s only a doll,_ Allen thought as he, Kanda, and Toma dared through the forest toward Martel. A crescent moon hung in the dark sky above and scattered clouds covered portions of the stars that speckled the black surface. The air was cool but Allen barely noticed it as it zipped past his cheeks as he ran, his thoughts on what Toma had told him about the dolls that joyously dance and sang and how they were created to forget about their horrible lives.

_But in the end, the people of Martel got tired of creating dolls and they eventually moved away. However, the dolls that were left behind still moved as they did before, even after five hundred years,_ Allen thought as he kept running alongside Kanda and Toma.

“It wouldn’t be surprising if an Innocence was used to create these dolls,” Kanda said.

Allen opened his mouth to reply but a cold chill suddenly trailed icy claws down his spine and he skidded to a halt at the edge of a cliff overlooking Martel. He gazed down at the devastated land and, even from how high up he was, he could see the destruction. That cold chill still permeated the area.

“Damn, we tried to get here as soon as we got the transmission but they’re already dead,” Kanda murmured.

Allen said nothing, gritting his teeth instead.

“Hey, you,” Kanda said suddenly and Allen turned to look at the Asian Exorcist. “I’ll say this before we start. I don’t care if you’re on the verge of being killed. If I find that you’re a nuisance, I’ll leave you behind. In war, there are always sacrifices so don’t think of us as partners.”

Allen looked away, jaw clenched. “I don’t like your way of thinking,” he said flatly.

An explosion erupted from the heart of the abandoned city and Allen gritted his teeth as his eye activated and a group of the round level 1 akuma rose up into the air, firing downward.

Allen immediately jumped off the cliff and, skidding down the side of it, jumped onto the roof of a building and darted toward the clown-like being. “Stop it,” he shouted as his Innocence activated and he attempted to crash his arm into the humanoid, clownish being that was obviously an akuma—his eye proved that—but one that Allen has never seen before. The clownish akuma diverted Allen’s arm and grinned at him and crashed a leg into him.

Allen yelped as he was thrown away from the akuma and crashed heard into one of the few buildings that was still standing, causing rubble and dust to fall down.

As Allen struggled to drag himself out of the rubble and get to his feet, he heard the clownish akuma speak. “He was different from the other guys in white coats. He was wearing a black one,” he said and looked at his hand and added, realization in his voice. “This power...You’re the ones called ‘exorcists’, eh?”

Allen, finally using his Innocence to push the larger pieces of rubble off his back, lifted his head, gritting his teeth and glaring at the akuma. “You’re the one that killed the finders,” he said.

The akuma floated forward, its bat-like wings fluttering behind him. It also had on thick, striped clown pants and clown shoes as he came to a stop a few feet in front of Allen.

“Can you hear it? The sound of my heart. I’m getting excited,” he exclaimed. “Exorcist! Exorcist! Exorcist!”

Allen frowned as the akuma laughed. _This akuma, does it have emotions? He feels happy in battle._ His eyes drifted to the soul and surprise went through him when he noticed that the soul attached to the akuma seemed to be growing and less recognizable as human. _And what the…? The soul sealed within the body is becoming corrupt._

Movement sounded and Allen and the akuma turned just in time to see Kanda leap into the open, his katana at the ready. He slashed it, shouting, “First Illusion: Underworld Insects,” and vicious looking, multiple-eyed insect-like creatures shot forward crashing through the level 1 akumas. Kanda jumped between them, clearing them easily before they exploded.

“Oh, there was another one?” the clownish akuma said in surprise.

Kanda jumped down, heading straight toward where the dolls were and the akuma cried, “Oh no, the dolls!”

It then frowned, looked from the dolls to Allen and back again, looking like it was trying to decide what to do. Allen had this odd feeling that he should probably move and he was right when the akuma fixed his entire attention on him.

“I’ll kill you right here,” he said and repeated that a few times before finishing with a snarled, “I’ll kill you first!”

It then cast a sidelong glance at Kanda, who was carrying the doll and its companion. “I’ll get you later anyway,” it shouted.

Kanda ignored that, locking eyes briefly with Allen. “I won’t help you defeat him. It was your fault that you acted on your emotions in the first place,” he said in a bored tone of voice.

Allen knew that. Kanda had made it plain clear earlier that they weren’t partners. “All right, go ahead. You have Innocence so there’s no need for me to worry. I’ll destroy the akuma and then get going,” he said and turned to face the akuma in front of him.

The akuma grinned and jumped toward him but Allen quickly met his attack head-on, swiping his silver-clawed arm toward him but the akuma jumped out of the way and out of sight. Allen, gritting his teeth, looked around until he spotted the clownish akuma moving to attack him. He immediately whirled around and slashed toward him, his silver claws slicing the akuma directly in half.

Only for him to realize that it was a fake.

_Wait, it’s a fake? What’s…_? His thoughts were interrupted when a searing pain exploded in his shoulder as silver claws sank into them. He whipped his head around, eyes wide when he saw that he was gazing at a mirror reflection of himself.

**. . .**

The village of Paluzza was busy by the time the carriage pulled into it and Harry looked around, noticing that only a few people stopped to look at the carriage as it rolled across the cobblestone road. The majority of the population was running from one merchant’s stall to the other or entering and leaving shops that lined the road.

The carriage came to a halt and the driver turned to look at him, Lenalee, and Conner. “Well, you said that you were looking into that old legend about that cabin, right? If ya want more information, I suggest going to talk with Dario. He’s a storyteller who knows many different versions of that same legend so he might know something else.”

“Thank you,” Lenalee said with a kind smile. “So where can we find Dario?”

“He’s usually in the plaza at this time of day.”

Lenalee nodded and hopped off the back of the carriage and Harry followed suit with Conner behind them. He told them hat he would go get them an inn room and walked off after they thanked him.

Lenalee turned to Harry. “Well, let’s go speak with Dario and then we’ll see what else we can do,” she said.

“Sure,” Harry said and the two headed toward the plaza.

They found Dario easily enough. He was seated on a bench and surrounded by children ranging from around five to ten years of age who looked enthralled in the story that he was telling. He looked around Sirius’s age with thick black hair and tanned skin dressed in beige and brown traveler’s clothing.

“...and so the evil witch was never heard from again and the shop owner went on to live a fulfilling life with his wife and children. The end,” Dario finished.

“Oh, that was great. Tell us another one!” One kid cried excitedly.

“Yeah, yeah, tell us another one,” another kid shouted.

Dario laughed. “Ah, I think one’s enough for today. Why don’t you all run along and play?” he said.

The children whined but got to their feet and left.

Dario stood up and stretched and Lenalee chose that moment to approach him. He spotted her and gave her a grin. “Well, what can I do for ya, pretty lady?” he said.

“We were wondering if you could help us,” Lenalee said, her voice and her eyes serious and guarded in a way that Harry had never seen before.

Dario blinked and then his eyes landed on the rose cross. “You’re with the Vatican, I see,” he said. “All right, what does the Church want with me?”

“We’re investigating the strange things that have been going on around the Rifugio Alpini cabin,” Lenalee explained. “People have reported hearing singing and being unable to get within five miles of the cabin.”

“Well, I dunno much ‘bout that,” Dario said, sitting back down on the bench. “I only know the legend. It says that the cabin was once home to a family of performers; the parents were clowns, the eldest son was an acrobat, the eldest daughter was a tight-rope walker, and the youngest daughter was a singer. She had a beautiful voice but, tragically, her life was cut short when she was murdered by her own mother in that very cabin. The mother was arrested and the family left but the legend suggests that her spirit is still there. The story says that some people have managed to get into the cabin but not everyone and it seems that the cabin protects those who are innocent or pure and prevents anyone who is malevolent or tainted from entering. That’s the story anyway but I don’t really believe it.”

“Do you know what she sings?” Harry asked.

Dario nodded. “According to the legend, the spirit sings bible verses, usually from the Book of Psalm, and that’s why many who hear this story believe that the cabin really does only allow those who are innocent or pure inside. Many see it as a sacred place, hence why very few people actually try to get closer than five miles.”

Lenalee frowned. “So it’s everyone’s choice not to get closer and not some supernatural phenomenon?” she asked.

“I’ve heard some people who did try to get closer weren’t able to do so, so there may be some truth to that but I don’t really believe it. Those people are just telling tall tales to gain attention is what I believe. I dunno how that helped ya out but there ya go.”

“Thank you,” Lenalee said and led the way away from the storyteller.

Harry fell into step beside her, glancing over his shoulder at the storyteller. “Do you think it is Innocence and it’s, somehow, is picking and choosing who it allows in the cabin and keeping others out?” he asked.

“It’s possible,” Lenalee said, scanning the area before pointing toward a sign nearby. “It’s getting late but do you want to head up the trail now or wait until daylight?”

Harry pressed his lips together. “Now might be best. The trail shouldn’t be that busy this late,” he said.

“My thinking too,” Lenalee said.

“Excuse me, Miss?” a small voice said and Harry turned to find a little girl of about ten years of age walking toward them.

Lenalee gave the girl a patient smile. “What can I do for you?” she asked, though Harry noticed that, while she was smiling, the same serious and guarded look from earlier was still present on her face.

The girl smiled charmingly at her. “Exorcist,” she said and Harry jumped back, eyes wide when the little girl split in half to reveal an akuma that he’s never seen before appear. It was slender than the round balloon-like akuma with twin curved bull-like horns jutting out of its head and electricity crackling along its arms.

“I found Exorcists! Master was right. They did come!” It exclaimed, laughing.

_An akuma that can talk? Is it more powerful and that’s why it can talk?_ Harry thought.

Lenalee jumped backwards as well. “Innocence, activate,” she said and jumped into the air. Harry watched as her boots unwound themselves to leave behind glowing green high-heeled shoes. And she was floating in midair as her legs glowed around her.

“Harry, watch out!” She shouted.

Harry whirled around and dove to the ground, barrel rolling to avoid the burst of electricity that the akuma had sent flying at him. He quickly scrambled to his feet, whirling around in time to see Lenalee crash a kick into the akuma, throwing it backwards a few feet.

“You’re gonna need to do more than that, Exorcist,” the akuma said with a laugh. “I only have to keep you distracted while my companions work on the barrier surrounding the Innocence.”

_So there’s more of you, thanks for letting us know,_ Harry thought, activating his Innocence and shouting “ _reducto_ ”. The bright green flash crashed into the akuma but, instead if destroy it, it only threw it into a building.

“Careful, Harry,” Lenalee said from where she was hovering in midair. “That’s a level two akuma and it’s clear it seems to have the power of electricity.”

_That likely means it is more powerful and one spell probably won’t be enough to take it down,_ Harry thought. “ _Reducto!_ ” he shouted again, throwing the spell but the akuma was fast, dodging out of the way and then throwing a sphere of electricity at Harry. Harry dodged out of the way and had to quickly conjure up a shield charm to catch the next burst of electricity; it slammed into it and, while the shield held, the force of the attack threw Harry backwards.

He yelped in pain as he was sent sailing through the window of one of the buildings that lined the road. He crashed into a few tables, skidded across the floor, and nearly slammed head first into the bar had he not twisted around so that his back took the brunt of the collision.

Pushing himself to his feet and wincing at the pain in his back, he was lucky he hadn’t broken any bones, Harry limped toward the entrance to the building. He was thankful that the building had been empty though. He left the building just in time to see a ball of electricity nearly slam into Lenalee had she not flipped out of the way; she was floating on her stomach for a few moments before she finished the flip. She was now hovering a few feet above the building that Harry had been thrown into.

“You okay, Harry?” she called down.

Harry nodded and turned to the akuma who grinned at them and then it tilted its head. “I gotta cut this short. Looks like the barrier’s almost down. Bye bye, exorcist,” it said and, with a laugh, it threw a large ball of electricity at the ground. The resulting explosion sent pieces of cobblestone flying in all directions; Harry conjured up a shield charm while Lenalee flew higher to avoid the flying pieces of debris.

“We need to get to the cabin quickly,” Lenalee said, floating downward and holding out a hand. “We won’t be able to walk the trail. It’ll take too long. Take my hand. I’ll be able to get us there faster.”

“Are you sure you’ll be able to handle my weight?” Harry asked uncertainly.

Lenalee smiled at him. “I’m stronger than I look,” she said.

Harry hesitated but, since the akuma was getting away and he did have a job to do, he nodded and grabbed Lenalee’s hand. She flew into the air and Harry had to admit he was a little surprised that she was able to handle his weight. Even if he weighed less than most people his age, he was pretty sure he was heavier than her.

Nonetheless, it actually felt good to fly again. While Harry would give anything to fly on his own broom again, it was still just as exhilarating as if he was flying on his own. He smiled as he felt the warm wind caress his cheeks as he flew and found himself wishing that he had access to a broom that was capable of flying.

“Look at that,” Lenalee said, pointing and Harry turned to where she was indicating to find that there were at least ten level one akuma firing their purple bullets downward at the cabin. Light shimmered each time a bullet hit some sort of shield and, even from their distance in the air, Harry heard faint singing.

“The arrogant cannot stand

in your presence.

You hate all who do wrong;

you destroy those who tell lies.

The bloodthirsty and deceitful

you, Lord, detest.

But I, by your great love,

can come into your house;

in reverence I bow downstairs

toward your holy temple.

Lead me, Lord, in your righteousness

because of my enemies—

make your way straight before me.” (2) (Psalm 5:5-8)

“Wow, it really does sing bible verses,” Harry said. “And that voice is actually pretty nice, though I wonder just who is doing that singing.”

“It couldn’t just be the Innocence has attached itself to something or there could be someone in there. I don’t know. We need to get closer to find out and those akuma look like they might be close to breaking open whatever barrier is up,” Lenalee said with a frown.

Harry looked around and frowned himself. “And I don’t see that level two anywhere,” he said.

Just then, a blast of electricity shot toward them and Lenalee yelped, jumping upward but Harry’s grip on her hand loosened. He eyed the ground, he was a good twenty feet above the ground, but let go.

“Harry!” Lenalee cried.

Harry dived forward as if he was diving into a swimming pool. Either he would crash into the same barrier that refused to allow anyone near the cabin or he would crash into the ground. So, when he was less than a foot from where the light shimmered, his wand was in his hand. “ _Arresto momentum!_ ” He stopped, hovering a foot from the barrier that shimmered each time an akuma hit it and stretched out a hand. When his arm went through, he realized that he could get through.

“I’m going in, Lenalee!” He shouted, glancing over his shoulder in time to see Lenalee crash a kick into a level one akuma, the level two was currently attempting to get out of the tree Lenalee had likely kicked him into.

Lenalee glanced at him as she leapt away from the exploding akuma and jumped towards another one. Relief shone on her face and she, crashing downward on top of the akuma, and cutting straight through it like it was butter, turned and flew toward him. “You can get through?” she asked.

“Yeah. You might be able to too,” Harry said.

Lenalee lowered herself gingerly and poked her foot beyond the barrier only for her leg to sink through.

Harry, spotting the blast of electricity, hastily conjured up a shield charm, which, unfortunately, had the added effect of releasing the _arresto momentum_ spell and he was sent plummeting down. At the very least, the shield charm did succeed in covering Lenalee and deflecting the blast of electricity into another level one akuma.

Lenalee shot through the barrier and flew toward Harry, stretching out a hand and Harry grabbed hold of it. She leveled out when they were a few feet from the ground and Harry allowed himself to drop the remaining feet.

Rolling onto his back, he sat up as Lenalee landed beside him, deactivating her Innocence as she did so. “Thanks,” he said.

“You’re welcome. Are you okay though?” Lenalee asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Harry turned to the cabin where the odd singing was still coming from. “Well, we should get moving.”

“Yeah,” Lenalee said with a nod and the two headed toward the door leading into the cabin.

**. . .**

_Why am I looking at a reflection of myself?_ Allen thought around the pain that was radiating from his shoulder as he ignored the blood that was trickling down his uniform. He gritted his teeth and swiped out with his Innocence, forcing the akuma—his eye told him it was still the akuma—and the akuma jumped backwards.

It laughed. “I copied it,” it said.

Allen frowned at it in confusion.

“Your power,” the akuma said and held up the silver clawed arm that was growing out of its right arm. It did look like a copy of Allen, except with clown pants.

“You underestimated me, didn’t you?” the akuma said with a grin and stuck out its tongue as it added, “I’m at level two. Unlike the ball-like akuma my abilities have been discovered. Well, actually, I just found out about them myself. And this is the evolved form of my ability.”

It grinned. “And now I’ll kill you,” it said and charged toward Allen, taking advantage of his shocked state and Allen’s eyes widened as spear-like things shot toward him. He immediately caught them with his left hand to stop it from piercing him. He was thrown backwards, sailing through who knew how many buildings before he came to a halt in with a crash that was hard enough to daze him.

He glanced at his left arm and paled when he saw the damage done to it. “No!” he cried. “I’ve been wounded! Komui’s gonna fix it again!”

**. . .**

Komui looked up because he was positive someone was talking about him. He adjusted his glasses, his other hand holding the mug of steaming coffee. “Hm?”

“Get to work!” Reever shouted as he walked past, carrying a large stack of books.

“Yeah, yeah,” Komui said with a wave of his hand.

**. . .**

“I’m scared,” he murmured at the memory of when Komui fixed his Innocence when he suddenly heard something. It sounded like cracking and Allen did get the chance to really think about it much when, suddenly, the ground gave out underneath him. He yelped as he was sent tumbling backwards and down but he suddenly stopped and swung a little like a pendulum as his Innocence latched onto a swaying chandelier.

He looked down and furrowed his brows in confusion. “What is this place? There’s a big cave underneath the city,” he murmured.

The chandelier chose that moment to give out on him.

With a yelp, he was sent falling the remaining yards to the ground below. He crashed hard and winced, though it didn’t feel like nothing broke, which was extremely lucky given how hard he’d hit the hard floor and the pieces of debris. Allen slowly sat up, gazing around with a small frown on his face.   
“This is like an underground path,” Allen realized, slowly pushing his way to his feet.

Sighing, he gazed around and began looking for where he could possibly go to find that akuma or, at least, regroup with Toma and Kanda. He started walking away from the room that he’d ended up in, not sure at all where he was going.

Fifteen minutes later, he somehow found himself in a short tunnel that he had to crawl through that was covered in cobwebs and he was hopelessly lost.

“What should I do? I’m lost,” he said and groaned, sitting back on his heels and nearly banging his head on the stone ceiling above him. He grabbed his hair and whined. He hated his lack of a sense of direction because it got him into so much trouble.

“I shouldn’t have walked around so carelessly,” he whined. “This place is like a freaking maze! I’m not supposed to get lost in here like some missing child!”

He pouted, looking around. “If only Timcampy were here,” he said.

Just then, he heard a thud outside. He blinked and turned toward it and yelped when the wall burst open and Timcampy appeared, wings fluttering on either side of it and pieces of stone being chewed by its teeth.

Allen beamed. “Timcampy! Boy am I glad to see you,” he cried, grabbing Timcampy and happily snuggling the golden golem.

Until it bit him on the ear.

“Ow! Okay, okay! I’ll stop,” Allen whined, releasing the golden golem and rubbing his ear. He blinked at the golden golem and added, “Can you help me outta this place ‘cause I’m lost.”

Timcampy gave the golem equivalent of a nod and, turning around, began flying in the direction Allen had been going and Allen quickly hurried after him.

After taking a few turns—if not for Timcampy, Allen would have likely taken the wrong turns—the white-haired Exorcist finally appeared at the opening to the crawlspace tunnel he’d been in. He was just in time to see Kanda’s netherworld insects fly straight toward someone that looked like him. However, his eye wasn’t activating so Allen knew that it couldn’t be the akuma that had transformed into him earlier.

He activated his Innocence and immediately propelled it forward so that it shielded his look-alike from Kanda’s attack.

“You are…?” he began because he had an odd feeling he knew just who that person was, even if was hard to believe that it was him.

“ _Moyashi!_ ” Kanda growled.

Allen turned toward him as he jumped out of the tunnel and knelt beside his unconscious look alike. “Kanda...” he began.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kanda demanded, glaring at him. “Why are you protecting the akuma?”

Allen’s jaw clenched and he gave the blue-haired Asian boy a cool look. “Kanda, I have an ‘eye’ that can tell people apart from akuma. This person is not an akuma,” he said flatly.

“M...Master Walker,” his look-alike gasped out and Allen frowned when he saw that there seemed to be a gap in his face.

He reached out and pulled at it, surprise going through him to reveal the a face that Allen recognized immediately as “Toma?!”

“What...” Kanda began.

“That Toma behind you is an akuma, Kanda!” Allen shouted, whipping his head around as his eye activated.

The akuma reacted instantly, whirling around, grabbing Kanda’s throat and slamming him through the stone wall. Mugen was knocked out o Kanda’s grip to lodge itself into the stone floor and debris was sent flying in all directions.

“K...Kanda!” Allen shouted.

**. . .**

“You made them rulers over the worlds of your hands;

you put everything under their feet:

all flocks and herds,

and the animals of the wild,

the birds in the sky,

and the fish in the sea,

all that swim the paths of the seas.” (3) (Psalm 8: 6-8)

Harry had to admit that what he saw when he opened the cabin door was not what he was expecting.

It was a teddy bear. A fluffy dark gray teddy bear carrying an open bible and singing with a glowing green cross resting on its forehead. It was clear that the Innocence was what had brought the teddy bear to life or, at least, gave it a voice to sing.

“It’s a teddy bear,” Harry said numbly.

“Aw, it’s kinda cute,” Lenalee commented.

“It’s a teddy bear...”

Lenalee chuckled and patted Harry’s shoulder before pointing. “Look over there,” she said quietly and Harry followed her gesture, surprise in his eyes when he spotted three people, two men and one woman, who were each sitting on a cot. Their thin shoulders had blankets wrapped tightly around themand they were gazing at the teddy bear with soft eyes. The eldest of the two men lifted his gaze and turned to Lenalee and Harry, a small frown on his lips; he looked to be in his late sixties.

“We have not had visitors in years,” he said. His voice was surprisingly strong despite his age.

“Who’re they, Papa?” the woman, who looked to be in her earlier thirties, said quietly.

“Visitors by the looks of ‘em,” the second eldest man, who was around his early forties, said.

“Who are you?” the eldest asked quietly.

“I’m Lenalee Lee and this is Harry Potter,” Lenalee said. “We’re Exorcists of the Black Order. We came for that.” She pointed to the teddy bear.

“You can’t take her!” the woman cried. “She’s...She’s...You can’t take my little sister!”

Lenalee blinked, surprise flitting across her face.

“It’s a teddy bear...” Harry said again, this time in response to the woman’s words, brow furrowing in confusion.

The ground shook and Lenalee glanced out the window, narrowing her eyes. “Those akuma have almost broken through that barrier,” she murmured and turned to the girl. “I’m sorry but that teddy bear is harboring Innocence and those dangerous creatures outside are after it. They want to destroy it. We want to bring it somewhere where it’ll be safe.”

“She’s protecting us,” the youngest man said.

“Not for much longer, I’m afraid. See? She’s getting tired,” Lenalee said, pointing to the teddy bear who was still singing bible versus but Harry could see that it was indeed looking tired. “It’s likely because of those akuma attacks.”

The woman swallowed. “Please don’t take her. She’s...I know she’s not really my sister but...she sings the same exact way my little sister did before our mother killed her,” she whispered.

_Dario’s story,_ Harry realized. Even though Dario had ended the story saying that the family had moved away after the youngest daughter was killed by her mother, it was starting to become clear to Harry that not only was the story true but Dario was also wrong.

The ground trembled again and then a triumphant yell sounded outside just as the teddy bear fell over onto its side, cutting off mid-verse with a whimper of pain. Lenalee bit her lip as she glanced out the window. “They’ve broken through. They’ll swarm this cabin,” she said.

“I’ll go see if I can hold ‘em off for now,” Harry said, pulling out his wand and activating it before moving outside. He pointed his wand at the converging akuma. He remembered how powerful Ginny’s _Reducto_ had been in the Department of Mysteries and poured as much energy as he could into his words as he shouted “ _reducto!_ ”

The blast of green light that erupted out of his wand was just as powerful as he’d hoped it would be and succeeded in not only destroying three akuma but also throwing two more into the level two, taking it down. It would only buy Lenalee a few minutes, and had taken far too much of Harry’s energy to where he was likely not going to be able to do that again today, but it had, at least, bought something.

He stumbled back into the cabin. “I bought us a few minutes but not much beyond that,” he said, leaning against the wall and breathing heavily.

“Are you okay?” Lenalee asked.

“Yeah. Using my Innocence takes far more energy than a normal equip type and I’m still not sure why,” Harry said, pushing himself away from the wall and swaying. He turned to the small family and smiled sadly. “I’m sorry but we really do have to take that Innocence.”

“You’ll be in danger if we don’t,” Lenalee explained patiently. “Especially now that the barrier that the Innocence had created has been broken through.”

“But...” the woman began.

“Please,” the teddy bear said, pushing itself up. “It’s okay. I’m ready to go. I can sing one more verse to keep you safe from those akuma outside but I must go.”

The little family exchanged glances, looking sad, but, finally, the father nodded slowly. “We understand but...you’re all that we have left of Ellie,” he said sadly.

“But you have your memories of her,” the teddy bear said. “You will always remember her, right? So long as you remember her, so long as you hold onto you memories of her, she will never truly die. She will always live on in your hearts.”

The little family exchanged glances with each other and smiled. “She’s right,” the woman said softly

The teddy bear reached for the bible it dropped but it’s paws were too short so Harry moved forward and, grabbing it, gently handed it to the teddy bear. It took it, thanked Harry who gave it an unnerved smile in return, and opened the bible up. It flipped through the pages just as a burst of electricity shot through the door, nearly slamming into Harry and Lenalee had Harry not conjured up a shield charm in time.

He was sent skidding backwards but he had managed to put enough power behind it to keep from being thrown across the cabin.

The teddy bear began singing:

“Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary.

Praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his acts of power;

praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,

praise him with the harp and the lyre,

praise him with the timbrel and dancing,

praise him with the strings and pipe,

praise him with the clash of cymbals,

praise him with resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.” (4) (Psalm 150: 1-6)

As the teddy bear was singing, a bright green light shone from the Innocent fragment within it and, as the roof was ripped away by bullets from the level one akumas that had gathered above, a glowing green shield encased the little family and Harry and Lenalee before losing color. Though the shield had become translucent, it was clearly still there because Harry could see it rippling each time the akuma hit it with a bullet or a ball of electricity.

“You will be safe for now,” the teddy bear said as it finished singing. “Even after I leave, the shield will remain for a few more hours.”

Harry turned to Lenalee. “We’re gonna need to take care of these akuma. We won’t get very far with the Innocence if we don’t take care of them now,” he said.

“Agreed,” Lenalee said and, darting toward the table, she jumped on it and then jumped up, calling “Innocence, activate” and shooting into the air the instant her Dark Boots were activated. She crashed a roundhouse kick into the side of the head of the level two akuma, throwing it to the ground outside the cabin.

Harry darted out of the cabin at that moment, shouting “ _reducto_!” as he did so and the level two akuma yelled as it was thrown backwards several feet and crashed into a tree. It snarled in fury as it got to its feet. It shot into the air and charged toward Harry who tossed a _diffindo_ curse at him but it dodged swiftly.

“I’ll kill you! Kill you! Kill you! Kill you!” It shrieked as it launched itself at Harry only to be thrown backwards by the disarming charm that Harry threw at it. He darted away from the cabin, hoping the akuma would focus on him and forget, for the moment, about the Innocence within the cabin.

_I really have adopted the role of an Exorcist, though, given it’s been a year since I was forced to do this, I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised_ , Harry thought, diving forward and rolling out of the way to avoid a blast of electricity. _After all, this is the only way that I can survive in this world._

An explosion sounded nearby and Harry turned in time to see Lenalee leap away from the explosion and kick another level one akuma, destroying it and leaving only two. They pointed their gun barrels at her but Harry threw a _reducto_ curse and a _diffindo_ curse at them; both of them met their targets and both akuma exploded.

However, the slight distraction cost him and he gasped as a blast of electricity slammed into him sending him flying backwards. He crashed into a tree and, taking it with him, went tumbling down the side of the mountain. He crashed into bushes, trees, and rocks before coming to a stop in the middle of a small stream that wound its way at the base.

Coughing and spitting out water, Harry slowly pushed himself to his feet. He gritted his teeth as he looked at his uniform, noticing the small pinpricks of blood from where thorns, tree branches, and rocks had stuck his skin. He looked up and winced when he saw just how far he’d fallen; he could see the head of the mountain trail leading to the cabin.

A scream that echoed throughout the mountains and caused birds to fly away from the trees they were perched in sounded and Harry watched, eyes wide with horror, as Lenalee was sent flying into a tree near where he’d landed. She was clutching something in he hands and Harry briefly caught sight of something glowing green.

The Innocence.

Lenalee tumbled out of the tree and landed hard in the ground, gasping but slowly pushing herself to her feet. Her uniform was burnt in a few places, likely from electricity, and she was covered in scraps and bruises. Small trickles of blood fell down her legs and arms but she seemed able to stand on her own feet though.

She glanced at him in concern. “I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you in time,” she said.

“It’s okay, Lenalee,” Harry assured her and frowned. “Where’s the level two?”

“It went to attack the cabin after it knocked you down the side of the mountain. I kicked it into a tree and grabbed the Innocence but it got up quicker than I thought it would and attacked me,” Lenalee said. She shifted her grip and Harry saw her holding the teddy bear in her arms. It had gone still and was no longer singing; whether that was because it couldn’t or just didn’t think there was a point, Harry didn’t know.

A shadow fell over them and Lenalee suddenly gasped. “Harry! Get out of the water!” She shouted.

Harry reacted swiftly, he did have good, quick reflexes—hence why he’d been made Seeker—and dove out of the water. He just cleared it before the ball of electricity slammed into the stream. He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that if he had been in there when that thing hit, he would’ve been dead.

He looked up in time to see the level two akuma fly toward them, another ball of electricity gathering in his hands. He bit his lip. He didn’t know how to defeat it, especially not when he’d used so much energy in that _reducto_ spell that had destroyed three akuma at once.

“Harry, I have an idea,” Lenalee said, floating into the air. “We attack it all at once. I’ll attack and you back me up with your current most powerful attack. It might be the only way.”

“Right.” Harry didn’t know what his most powerful attack was. He knew the most powerful spell was the patronus charm, since only a few people could actually do it and it could drive away Dementors, but Harry wasn’t sure that it would work on akuma.

_I’ll have to try it. None of my other spells seem to have an effect and I can’t do a repeat of that powerful reducto that I used earlier. Hm, at the very least, it should be able to distract the akuma long enough for Lenalee’s attack to hit and I could try another spell afterwards,_ he thought and pointed his wand at the level two akuma.

“Ready?” Lenalee asked, putting the teddy bear down and preparing to take off.

“As ready as ever,” Harry said and began focusing on a happy memory. He focused on his time at Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione and found himself also including memories of his time with Allen. He thought about the time when he and Allen had that snowball fight in the Himalayas.

Lenalee took off and, as she neared the akuma, she readied herself to kick it. It noticed that she was coming and turned, prepared to attack her with another ball of electricity but Harry wasn’t going to let it.

“ _Expecto patronum!_ ” he shouted.

There was a burst of light from his wand and he watched, eyes wide, as a silver stag with emerald green antlers and glowing streaks of emerald along its pelt, emerged and charged at the akuma. It crashed into it, those emerald antlers sinking straight into the akuma’s chest, causing it to yell in shock and pain.

Lenalee jumped further into the air and shot downward like a missile, crashing her heeled feet directly into the akuma that was trying desperately to remove the stag’s antlers from its midsection. The stag jumped back as Lenalee cut through the level two akuma like it was just butter. With a yell, it shattered, shedding particles of dark matter flying in all directions. Particles that were quick to dissipate in the light of the moon that was rising in the distance.

Lenalee panted as she lowered herself to the ground.

The stag landed also and trotted toward Harry who gazed at it in wonder. It nodded once at him and then vanished.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Lenalee commented. “That was a stag, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah...” Harry said quietly.

“And your Innocence called it up? That’s actually pretty amazing. I think that might be a sign that you’re Innocence evolved,” the dark-green-haired girl said as she deactivated her Innocence and bent down to pick up the teddy bear.

“You think so?” Harry asked. “Was that why it looked like a...ghost combined with Innocence?” He had been about to say patronus but doubted that Lenalee would understand what that meant so he went for the next best thing to describe the patronus.

“Likely. Well, let’s get back to the town. We should get our injuries seen to and check up on Conner,” Lenalee said.

Harry nodded in agreement.

**. . .**

Allen was just in time to hear Kanda’s words “I...I cannot die before I find that person!” before he went still.

The akuma laughed. “Awesome. He died while standing,” it exclaimed.

Allen shot forward, slamming his Innocence into the back of the akuma. “You bastard!” he shouted and the akuma was sent flying into the wall.

He whirled around and ran to stand in front of Kanda. “Kanda!” he exclaimed only to pause when he heard the faint breathes that were escaping Kanda’s lips. _He’s breathing. He’s still alive._

Gritting his teeth, he picked up Kanda and went back to where Toma lay unconscious and scooped up him under his arm. He then moved as quickly as he could down the hallway with Timcampy leading the way. He didn’t know how far they’d gotten, though he doubted it was very far since he couldn’t move that well while carrying Kanda and Toma and he still had his own injuries that were bothering him.

“M...Master Walker, please leave me here. You’re badly wounded too,” Toma gasped out.

“I will do no such thing,” Allen said firmly and then looked around. _Damn, I have no idea where I am. Isn’t there a place where we could stop to take care of these injuries?_

Just then, he heard faint singing:

“Lacrimosa dies illa

Qua resurget ex favilla

Judicandus homo reus.

Huic ergo parce, Deus,

Pie Jeus, Domine!”

_What is this? A song?_ Allen thought, listening to the sad lullaby that drifted around him. It was beautiful and yet tragic.

“I can hear a song,” Allen murmured as the song began to drift away.

“Judicandus homo reus.

Dona eis, requiem! Amen!

Pie Jesu, Domine!”

As the tragically beautiful song came to an end, Allen blinked, wondering just where it was coming from and why it seemed like it was close. He moved forward just in time to hear an old wizened voice say, “Lala, stay by my side. And when I die, let my hand be the one that breaks you.”

Allen stepped into the open just in time to see a blonde _doll_ throw herself into the man with the witch’s hat’s arms. “Yes, Guzoru. Lala is Guzoru’s doll,” she said. “What shall I sing next?”

“I am ugly, an ugly human,” Guzoru said just as Allen stepped into the open.

He must have caused some sort of noise because the next thing he knew both the doll and the old man were looking straight at him. He smiled sheepishly. “Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but,” he began, his smile fading a little. “You are a doll, aren’t you?”

He had not expected the doll, Lala, to react as badly as she had. She threw a pillar at him but, thankfully, he managed to catch it and throw it back, destroying the pillars and preventing Lala fro throwing something else at him. “I just want to talk. Please, tell me what’s going on,” Allen insisted, leaning against the pillar he had his activated left arm wrapped around.

He smiled and added, “I don’t want to fight a cute girl.”

Lala blinked and then bowed. “Guzoru is going to die soon. Until then, please don’t separate me from hi. I’ll give you my heart,” she exclaimed.

She went on to explain her history with Guzoru while Allen worked to see to Kanda’s and Toma’s wounds. He left Kanda sleeping while listening to Lala explain about how Guzoru was the only one who was willing to listen to her sing whereas everyone else attacked her and called her a monster. Then the boy Guzoru came and was the first one to ever accept Lala’s offer to sing for him. She then begged Allen to let her stay with Guzoru until the end, stating that he was the only one who accepted her.

Allen listened to her plea but, before he could reply, another voice interrupted.

“No!”

Allen turned to find Kanda pushing himself into a sitting position, his hair fanning out around him now that it was out of its ponytail. “Wait until this old man dies? We can’t grant this wish. We came here to protect the Innocence. Take that doll’s heart now!” he shouted.

When Allen made no move, thinking about Lala’s words, Kanda growled in irritation.

“What did we come here for?” the Asian exorcist demanded.

Allen found that he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t deny Lala’s last wish. “I can’t do it,” he said. “Sorry. I just can’t do it.”

Kanda growled and threw something at him. Allen caught it and looked to find that it was his uniform.

“This coat isn’t a pillow for the wounded. It’s the uniform of an Exorcist,” Kanda snapped, standing up and pulling his own uniform back on. He strode past Allen, adding, “There are sacrifices that must be made, rookie.”

Allen gritted his teeth as he heard Kanda remove his blade from its scabbard.

“Please, don’t take it,” Lala cried.

“Stop,” Guzoru said.

Allen wasn’t going to let that happen. He wanted Lala and Guzoru’s final wish to be granted. If there had to be a sacrifice then fine. “Then I will be the one,” he said, slipping his coat on and swiftly darting until he was between Guzoru and Kanda’s blade.

“Will it be enough if I am the ‘sacrifice’ for these two?” he demanded, remembering the conversation that had gone on between Lala and Guzoru earlier.

“Until then, I cannot remove the Innocence from this doll. If I… destroy the akuma, then there isn’t a problem, is there? To make sacrifices all the time to win the war. It’s futile.”

Kanda’s fist shot out and Allen was thrown off his feet.

“Master Kanda!” Toma gasped as Kanda slumped to his knees, gritting his teeth in pain.

“How incredibly naive,” Kanda growled. “Selling yourself out for some pitiful strangers? Isn’t there anything important to you?”

Allen was silent for a long moment, his thoughts drifting to Mana and, to a lesser extent, to Harry. It was odd. He hadn’t really thought much about Harry other than the fact that the boy was a close friend, probably the first friend that Allen had ever made. And yet the more he thought about it, the more he realized he didn’t really have a reason for wanting to grant Lala’s wish. He just wanted to grant it because he cared more about what was in front of him at the moment and not so much what the whole world needed. Just as he cared more about freeing the souls of akuma than about the war as a whole really.

“I did have something important. I lost it long ago,” he murmured, thinking about Mana. “Maybe I found something else but I just don’t know. It’s pitiful though I don’t have a noble reason for wanting to do this. I just don’t want to see something like this happen. That’s all.”

“I’m a small man. My heart is moved by what’s in front of my eyes, not by what the whole world needs. I can’t just abandon what’s there in front of me. I want to protect everything I can.”

Kanda glared.

Just then, the world shifted and Allen watched, in horror, as sand morphed out of nowhere into claws that shot through Guzoru to grab Lala and drag them both downward. Allen dived forward but was too late to grab Lala and Guzoru and pull them to safety.

“The akuma...it’s here,” Allen said through gritted teeth as he gazed around at the shifting sands around him.

Suddenly, the clownish level two appeared carrying Lala’s motionless doll form in one of its claws while carrying the fragment of Innocence in the other. It laughed as it declared, “I got the Innocence!”

The doll was thrown to the ground and Allen’s eyes widened before anger welled up inside him. He gritted his teeth as he stood up, ignoring the way the akuma was studying the Innocence curiously, only listening to Guzoru calling Lala’s name. His anger surged through him again and he felt the wind pick up around him. Power surged through him and he felt his arm morph and shatter and then reform, gradually changing form.

Green light coiled around him as he glared at the akuma, his left eye lit up with the curse as thick strands of white hair flew into his face. The green coils of light traveled down his left arm as power wafted off; an almost deathly calm accompanied by rage went through him.

“Return it. Return that Innocence,” he said coolly as the power grew stronger. He lowered his head slightly. “Return it!”

“M...Master Walker’s anti-akuma weapon, it’s going to change,” Toma gasped.

“Exorcists who use a parasite-type anti-akuma weapon can manipulate it according to their emotions. His Innocence is reacting to his anger,” Kanda explained.

Allen darted forward and leapt into the air, preparing to attack the akuma.

“Idiot! Your weapon hasn’t fully formed yet,” Kanda shouted.

Allen ignored him as he pointed his left arm at the akuma, and it finished reforming into a cannon that radiated with power.

**. . .**

_Next Time: Aftermaths_

**. . .**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Chapter Five is here! This story is actually complete but I'm just incredibly slow at posting the chapters. And I'm trying to get through the sequel to.
> 
> Yes, this story will have a sequel. As you might have noticed, the number of chapters in this story has been decided.
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and reviews and kudos are much appreciated.


	6. Aftermaths

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Harry and Allen's first missions. Plus, the Noah get curious about the newcomers in Pyli and Gailac.

**6**

**Aftermaths**

Harry studied the teddy bear he’d taken to carrying in his arms while Lenalee flew them down the mountain trial and toward the town of Paluzza below. It was still quiet but, occasionally, it would hum something; even though Harry couldn’t make out what it was humming, it sounded sorrowful. The teddy bear also seemed to be looking directly at him, which he found very creepy, but it said nothing. Whether it was unable to talk or just didn’t want to talk anymore, he didn’t know; he just knew that it was creepy.

“This thing is still creeping me out,” he said to Lenalee.

She chuckled. “I guess it is a little creepy when you think about it,” she said. She neared the edge of the city and landed, deactivating her Innocence as she did so. She turned to Harry, who’d tucked the teddy bear under his arm, and said, “Let’s go find Conner and head home. The sooner we get home, the better.”

 _Home._ Harry knew that Lenalee was referring to the Black Order’s headquarters but, while he did feel very comfortable within the Black Order’s headquarters, he still couldn’t quite see it as home. Hogwarts was his home but it was far into the future and if the Millennium Earl had his way then there probably wouldn’t be a future for him to return to.

And yet...Allen did say that it was possible to have two homes, one in the past and one in the future, but Harry just didn’t feel that way about the Black Order’s headquarters. Maybe it would come with time but, for now, that wasn’t what he felt.

“Is everything all right, Master Exorcists?” Conner asked as he walked over to join them, taking in their blood spattered and scraped bodies and the currently humming teddy bear in Harry’s arms. He didn’t even bat an eyelash at it though, which made Harry wonder just how many creepy and weird things he’s seen since he joined the Order.

“Yes, everything’s fine. We found what we needed so we can head home now,” Lenalee said.

Conner nodded. “The carriage that brought us here has already left but I showed be able to get us another ride. It will take a while however, Master Exorcist,” he said.

“That’s fine. I’ll contact Brother and let him know that we’ve completed the mission and will be heading back to headquarters in a little while,” Lenalee said.

“Your golems are in the inn room that I got for all of you. It’s room 104,” Conner said.

“Thanks, Conner,” Harry said.

Conner nodded and walked away.

Lenalee turned to Harry and smiled at him. “You did a good job for your first mission,” she said with a kind smile.

“Yeah, even after a year, fighting akuma is still something that I’m no completely used to,” Harry admitted. _Not to mention, this is the first time that I’ve faced an akuma that was above a level one. At least we have the Innocence, the akuma are destroyed, and that family’s safe,_ he thought.

He looked at the teddy bear. “Still can’t believe you’re a teddy bear,” he said.

The teddy bear lifted its head tiredly, gave Harry a look, and flopped back down.

“And that is creepy.” _Then again, after spending so long at Hogwarts, I really should be used to this kind of thing. At least it’s not one of Fred and George’s experiments gone wrong or Peeves or the pink toad,_ he thought. The memory of the pink toad caused him to self-consciously flex his left hand, where the ‘I must not tell lies’ had been scarred into his skin by Umbridge’s blood quill.

Deciding that he needed to get his mind off those particular memories, Harry fell into step beside Lenalee and decided to talk about something in order to pass the time. “So, Lenalee, do you have any family other than your brother?” he asked.

Lenalee smiled sadly and shook her head. “My parents were killed in an akuma attack when I was really young and I don’t have very many memories of my childhood before I was brought to the Black Order,” she admitted.

“Oh. I’m sorry...about your parents,” Harry said, feeling bad for bringing up that kind of topic. Usually he had more tact than that but he hadn’t really thought the question was a bad one.

“Don’t be. It’s all right. I’ve gotten over it and I still have Brother,” Lenalee reassured him. “So what about you? You mentioned your friends and godfather. What are they like?”

Harry smiled as he thought about his friends and his godfather. “Well, Ron’s my first friend. We met when we were eleven and we attended the same school. He’s a whiz at chess, has beaten me so many times that I’ve lost count, and he’s got a huge family: six siblings, four older brothers and one younger sister. They are like a second family to me. Ron has almost always had my back too.” Harry chose not to think about the incident with the Goblet of Fire, since Ron had come to realize the truth before too long.

“That sounds nice and he sounds like a good friend. I bet you miss your second family as much as you miss Ron,” Lenalee said.

“Yeah. I do.” Harry smiled softly, that surge of homesickness going through him again, but he chose not to dwell on it as he started talking about his other best friend. “My other friend’s name is Hermione; we met when I was eleven too at the same school that Ron and I were attending. She’s brilliant and probably the biggest bookworm I’ve ever met. She enjoys solving puzzles and, while she does get frustrated easily when it comes to her grades, she’s a good friend all the same who has always had my back. She always used to scold me when I slacked on assignments or do something dangerous.”

“She sounds like an amazing girl,” Lenalee said. “It must have been nice to live an ordinary life for a while. How did you end up in Africa to begin with?”

“I...honestly have no clue,” Harry admitted, deciding to be honest since he couldn’t think of a lie that Lenalee would buy. “It just sorta...happened.”

Lenalee blinked at him, confused by his words but Harry couldn’t really assuage her confusion since he couldn’t exactly tell her the truth.

“What about your godfather? What’s he like?” Lenalee asked, deciding against pressing that subject for which Harry was thankful.

“Sirius...he’s great,” Harry admitted, tilting his head to look at the sky above his head as he thought about his godfather. “Granted, we did have a rough start but that was only because of a misunderstanding. He was one of my dad’s best friends and offered to take care of me after that misunderstanding was cleared up. He’s...well, he’s not perfect”—Harry’s lips curved into a frown as he remembered those memories of Snape’s that he’d witnessed that showed not only his dad but Sirius as well bullying Snape—“but he’s tried to protect me and help me in his own way and I know that he really cares for me.”

“No one’s perfect but our flaws are what make us human. I’m glad that he cares for you though. It’s nice to have a family member support you through thick and thin, right?”

Harry nodded. “Yeah, and friends too.”

“Oh I agree but I see my friends as my family. I have only ever known the Black Order and its members have become my family,” Lenalee said.

“Yeah, I see my friends as my family too,” Harry said. “Looks like we’re here.”

The dark-green haired girl nodded and the two of them walked into the inn. The teddy bear shifted in Harry’s arms and looked around, humming quietly under its breath, causing a few heads to turn in their direction.

“Would you stop that? I don’t think we want everyone’s attention,” Harry said to the teddy bear.

The teddy bear just hummed but said nothing.

“Are you two all right?” the innkeeper asked, putting down the rag she was using to whip down the front desk. Her eyes were wide with alarm as she took in their burnt, soaked, torn clothing, mussed, twig- and leaf-infested hair, and spots of blood from the little scratches and cuts that they’d received during the fight. The bruises hadn’t yet formed but Harry was sure that his body was littered with them; he was really beyond thankful that he hadn’t broke anything, though he still wondered how that was possible.

“We’re all right. Thank you though,” Lenalee said.

Harry followed Lenalee as she led the way to the room Conner had gotten for them. Once inside, Lenalee walked over to where her vertically hexagonal golem was hovering while Harry, after throwing the teddy bear onto one of the beds, went to where Conner had placed their stuff. He searched through his suitcase until he found the first aid kit he’d stuffed into the suitcase during the limited time he had to pack before he had to leave.

He disappeared into the bathroom and, stripping his uniform off, grimaced as he caught sight of the many cuts that littered his legs, back, and side as well as a few bruises that were already starting to form. He also felt the material of the uniform; it was surprisingly durable despite not being that light and there weren’t even that many tears in it, only from the thorns that had snagged it. He sat down on the ground and began working on removing the few thorns that were still lodged into his skin, wincing as he did so since some of them had dug in deep.

A loud shout of “ _Lenalee!_ ” sounded in the other room and Harry sweatdropped when he recognized it as Komui’s.

After cleaning the wounds with soap and water and wrapping bandages around them to ensure that they didn’t get infected, Harry pulled his uniform back on and went to work pulling the twigs and leaves out of his hair. They certainly made his hair look even more like a bird nested in it than before.

A knock sounded on the door. “Harry?” Lenalee called.

“I’m almost done,” Harry called back, removing the last twigs and stepping out of the bathroom.

She smiled at him. “I’ve told Brother. He wants us to head back as soon as possible. I think he misses me.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure the entire town knows that he misses you,” Harry said dryly, thinking about that shout that he’d heard.

“Yeah, Brother’s a bit...different,” Lenalee said, carrying a couple of supplies, like a brush, in her hands.

Harry handed her the first aid kit. “You know, those uniforms are actually rather durable,” he said.

“Yeah, that’s why they’re made. I’m sure if these uniforms weren’t as durable as they are, we’d probably have been injured more, though not breaking any bones during this mission was due more to luck than anything, I think. Durable though these uniforms may be, they don’t work very well to stop bones from breaking.”

“I take it you know that from experience.” It wasn’t a question; Lenalee’s tone clearly suggested that she had learned that fact firsthand.

She answered anyway though. “Unfortunately.” She disappeared into the bathroom and Harry, wondering just how much Lenalee had dealt with since she became an Exorcist, walked over to the bed. He looked at the teddy bear who was resting on its side next to the pillow but it said nothing to him; it wasn’t humming anymore either.

He pulled out his own wand and looked at it, turning it around in his hands. Who would have thought that the wand he’d received when he was eleven years old would now be used as an Innocence weapon?

But if that’s the case…

A thought entered Harry’s mind. _If my wand became an Innocence weapon? Does this mean that Hermione’s, Ron’s, and Sirius’s wands might become weapons too? Would that mean they would be dragged into this war too?_

They were already fighting a war in the future but Harry suspected that if they knew that the Millennium Earl was probably worse—maybe not much worse but still worse—than Voldemort then they would.

Still, Harry had to wonder...if they had ended up in the same time as him then how were they handling it if they’d figured it out yet? Hermione probably already had but, considering Harry had come to realize that the late 19th century wasn’t that different from the Wizarding World he was used to, Ron and Sirius might not have. It was possible they had though, since Ron was a lot smarter than most people gave him credit for, and Sirius wasn’t stupid himself. Hermione was likely researching the time they were in and Ron and Sirius were likely just going with the flow until they could figure out just what the heck happened to get them there. That just seemed like something they would do.

Harry supposed that if their wands had become Innocence weapons then it was likely the Black Order hadn’t found them yet, or they had been picked up by another branch.

He just didn’t know though.

 _I hope you guys are safe though,_ he thought.

**. . .**

Allen was still in midair, his new silver cannon radiating power as he pointed it down a the clownish akuma that lay below him. His eyes was still alit with the red-and-black rings of his curse, his hair flew wildly from the gust of wind the evolution had conjured up, and he could still feel anger flooding through him. He fired and beams of glowing sabers shot out of the cannon to crash into the akuma and the area around it.

Allen landed on one of the sabers, gazing around when he noticed he’d missed the akuma. He spotted the doll laying motionless nearby and could see the movement of the sand that filled the floor.

“You can’t hit me when I shift into sand,” the akuma said and a three prong trident-like arm suddenly shot out of the sand.

Allen jumped off the saber to dodge it only to gasp in surprise when the sand akuma shot out of the ground and crashed into him. He felt the sand engulf him, shrouding him in darkness, and he gritted his teeth in frustation.

The akuma laughed. “Gotcha! It’s over for you!”

 _I can’t see anything. Wait…_ Allen frowned because he could feel his Innocence thrumming and suddenly he just knew what he needed to do. When he head the akuma wonder how many times it must stab him before he died, Allen was ready.

The akuma’s arm shot through its sandy body but Allen caught it with his anti-akuma weapon. The force of the collision between the two weapons was enough to send him flying out of the akuma’s body.

 _My Innocence showed my mind what to do,_ Allen thought as he lifted his head, his anti-akuma weapon forming a glowing white saber. _And my mind showed my body how to use my anti-akuma weapon._ He shot forward and, with one slash, sliced straight down through the akuma, cutting through its outer shell and revealing the true form that lay beneath.

The clownish akuma was revealed as its sandy outer skin ripped away from it.

“Ah. My sand skin!” the akuma shouted.

 _So this is is true form,_ Allen thought, landing on the ground and pointing his cannon at the akuma “I’m not giving you a chance to change your appearance again. This is it for you,” he shouted as he powered up his Innocence to fire.

“I still have your arm,” the akuma shouted, swiping toward him as Allen fired at the exact same time.

The two attacks collided with each other, causing an explosion that sent sand and debris flying in all directions.

Allen thought about Guzoru’s final words to Lala and his face darkened. “I cannot forgive you for this,” he said.

The akuma suddenly gasped and Allen noticed that its stolen arm was starting to crumble away and it was beginning to be consumed by the energy blast from Allen’s cannon. It looked shocked as it stared at its deteriorating arm. “Shit. Wha? Even though I used his hand, why did I lose?!” It cried.

Suddenly, Allen’s body trembled and he gasped and coughed, blood coming out of his mouth. _Damn it. Rebound. My body can’t keep up with the morphed weapon,_ he thought, his cannon losing its power and he fell to his knees, coughing and spitting out blood.

“Gotcha!” the akuma souted and lashed out with its decaying arm.

Only for it to suddenly be blocked by a _katana._

Allen lifted his head, surprise flooding his face when he saw Kanda standing in front of him, his _katana_ at an angle in front of him and his teeth bared in an irritated scowl. His hair floated free around him and sweat beaded on his forehead.

“K...Kanda,” Allen exclaimed in shock.

“Che.” Kanda gave Allen a furious look and shouted, “You useless idiot! What do you think you’re doing? Running out of power at the last minute? You were the bastard that babbled on about protecting those two.”

He growled and turned his head away. “I hate the way naive people like you do things and even more so I hate people who don’t keep their promises,” he spat.

“Haha, whichever it is, you still hate me,” Allen said with faint smile. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest but he ignored it as he wiped the blood with his arm, that had reverted back to its scaly red form, as he added, “It’s not that I’ve run out of power or anything like that. I’m just taking a little break.”

“...Everything you do is irritating...” Kanda growled and, with one swift motion, he sliced the akuma’s stolen arm free from its body while, at the same time, activating Mugen.

 _Give me one more shot. Innocence activate,_ Allen shouted in his head and his arm morphed into its cannon mode.

“Scatter!” He and Kanda shouted at the same time as they lowered their weapons at the exact same time and the underworld insects from Kanda’s _katana_ combined with the beams of light from Allen’s cannon. Both attacks attacked the akuma and, with one final scream of rage, the akuma was destroyed in a violent explosion of dark matter and light.

The explosion was powerful enough that it threw both Allen and Kanda off their feet. Allen, his body aching, watched as a glimmer of green fell and the Innocence cube landed on the ground a few feet away from him. He gritted his teeth and stretched out a hand toward it; he grabbed it and slowly made his way toward where Lala’s broken body lay.

His body ached with each movement but Allen had to keep his promise to the doll. He reached Lala’s side and slowly slipped the Innocence cube back into Lala’s chest. He sat back, watching as Lala came back to life.

“L...Lala,” Guzoru whispered weakly, blood falling out of his mouth as he reached out a hand toward Lala.

Lala turned to him. “Sir human, would you like to hear a song?” she said as she moved slowly over to join Guzoru.

“La...La...I love you,” Guzoru said.

Lala touched Guzoru’s face. “Sir human, would you like to sleep?”

“Lala...” Guzoru said.

Lala lifted her head to the sky and slowly began singing. The melodiously sad melody echoed through the chamber as starlight shone down on them from above.

**. . .**

Harry and Lenalee walked into what could best be described as a hurricane of paperwork, overworked and impatient scientists, and a complaining supervisor. Lenalee sweatdropped while Harry blinked. “Why does he always have so much paperwork?” he asked.

“He never does it,” Lenalee said simply, moving deeper into the room.

“Ahh, blue skies, emerald green ocean, por favor Italia!” Komui said in a singsong voice.

He listened to the response of whoever was on the other line and then said. “’What?’ heehee. I’m jealous, damn it!” He whined, slamming his fist into the stack of paperwork in front of him.

“Supervisor, we need your seal on this too,” Top called.

“And this,” Johnny Gill insisted. Lenalee had pointed everyone in the science department and told Harry their names.

“It has been three days since you defeated that akuma. What are you doing? Everyone is using me like a slave. They don’t let me go outside. It’s like I’m a prisoner in the dungeon of some castle,” Komui complained.

Lenalee sighed. “Brother. It looks like Allen and Kanda aren’t back yet from their mission,” she said.

“Well, we were a bit closer so I suppose I’m not that surprised that we got back first,” Harry said.

“You don’t get along with anyone so where is Allen?” Komui asked.

He paused and his face turned serious. “That doll called Lala...it’ll be soon, right?”

Reever moved closer to Komui but did incline his head in greeting to Lenalee and Harry. “Supervisor, incoming,” he said.

“Eh?” Komui blinked and groaned when he saw more stacks of paperwork. “Just put them down. So, your injuries took quite a while this time, Kanda.”

He listened and added quietly. “But since it took some time, it means it’s starting to deteriorate. You can’t afford to misgauge your life reserve.”

 _Life reserve?_ Harry looked at Lenalee.

Lenalee shook her head. “That’s Kanda’s secret. You’ll have to ask him,” she said.

“Not bloody likely,” Harry muttered. He didn’t like the Malfoy incarnate anymore than Allen did.

“You just have to get used to him. Kanda’s really an all right guy,” Lenalee said.

Johnny, who was walking nearby after dropping off his paperwork, stumbled at that. “Are you sure we’re talking about the same person here, Miss Lenalee?” he said, adjusting his glasses.

“Okay, he’s not _that_ great of a guy but...well...he’s not a bad guy so that’s something,” Lenalee said with a sweatdrop.

“I guess,” Harry said. _Still reminds me of Malfoy though I suppose Malfoy is worse,_ he thought.

Komui hung up his phone after finishing giving Kanda his next mission and then his eyes landed on Lenalee. “Lenalee!” He screamed and, jumping over the desk, launched himself at Lenalee. He grabbed her in a big hug with tears of joy spilling out of his eyes.

Harry sweatdropped. “We weren’t gone for that long...” he said.

“You get used to it after a while,” Johnny said, adjusting his glasses again before he held out a hand. “Oh. We haven’t been introduced. I’m Johnny Gill of the Science Division.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Harry Potter,” Harry said, taking the shorter boy’s hand and shaking it.

“Good to officially meet you too. I’ve finished with yours and Mr. Walker’s new uniforms too.”

“Thanks.”

“So how did the mission go?” Komui asked once he got control of himself, though that had only happened after Lenalee, irritated with her brother’s affection, had kicked him into his desk.

“It went well, Brother,” Lenalee said and held up the teddy bear. “Should Harry or I take this down to Hevlaska?”

Komui nodded, adjusting his glasses. “You can take care of that while Harry here can give me the summary of what transpired,” he said.

Lenalee nodded, tucking the teddy bear under her arm, before she smiled at Harry. “I’ll see you later, Harry,” she said.

“See you later, Lenalee,” Harry replied, waving as Lenalee turned and left the room.

“Don’t get too friendly with my Lenalee,” Komui growled threateningly and when Harry looked at him, he gulped at the sudden rod of steel that had appeared in Komui’s hands.

“I...I was just being polite,” he said quickly, backing away.

“Supervisor,” Reever groaned. “Would you stop scarring the new kid and hurry up and listen to his report? You have work to do.”

Komui pouted but sighed and threw the rod of steel behind him. A yelp followed by a crash sounded and Harry glanced around Komui to see Reever looking a little pale as he stared at the steel rode that had taken down a couple of stacks of paperwork. “Well, let’s get to it, Harry,” he said.

“Um...right...”

**. . .**

Allen was resting on the steps outside the underground chamber and listening to Lala’s lullaby as it echoed around him. It was quieter where he was seated but he could still hear the tone of Lala’s voice. Timcampy was resting on his shoulders as Allen kept his arms folded around his knees and rested his forehead on them. He was thinking about that sad melody and about his promise and Lala and Guzoru’s promise to each other.

“What are you sleeping for? Stay on guard!” Kanda’s voice jolted Allen out of his thoughts. Allen didn’t bother on lifting his head, though he did feel confusion over the appearance of the Asian exorcist.

“Huh? What is someone who’s supposed to take five months to recover doing here?” he asked.

“I’m healed,” Kanda said and Allen heard him sit down.

“No way...” Allen said because he was stunned. It shouldn’t be possible for someone with as many bad injuries as Kanda to heal in only three days.

“Shut up,” Kanda said. He paused for a moment, then added, “I got a message from Komui. I’m going ahead with my next mission. You deliver the Innocence back to Headquarters.”

“...” Allen could still hear that sad melody and his voice was a little melancholy as he said, “Understood.”

Kanda was silent for a moment. “If it’s hard to bear, then stop the doll. It isn’t Lala anymore, right?”

“But it’s their promise. The only one who can break Lala is Guzoru,” Allen replied.

“You’re naive,” Kanda said. “We’re destroyers, not saviors.”

Allen lifted his head, a soft sad smile on his lips. “I know that but I...” he began but broke off as the wind blew past him, throwing his hair into his face but also bringing with it utter silence from the cavern down below.

“The song stopped,” Allen murmured before he slowly stood up and, turning, made his way toward the cavern. He walked down into it and headed toward where Lala was holding Guzoru’s head on her lap, his body stretched out as if asleep. Her face was lifted toward the sky but she wasn’t moving nor were her lips moving.

Allen moved to the doll’s side and knelt down beside her.

“Thank you,” Lala whispered, startling Allen. She turned to Allen, a small smile on her lips. “For letting me sing until I break. The promise has been fulfilled.” She then collapsed and Allen subconsciously caught her but he said nothing; he could feel tears start to fall from his eyes.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Kanda called.

Allen wiped the tears away from his eyes. “Kanda,” he said. “Although what you said is true, I want to become a destroyer who can save.”

**. . .**

A few days later, Allen returned to headquarters with the Innocence and smiled as he stepped onto the pier jutting out over the underground waterway. The Innocence cube was tucked into his Exorcist coat’s pocket out of harm’s way. Allen made his way into the headquarters and looked to Timcampy who was on his shoulder, his tail wrapped around Allen’s neck. “Can you lead me to Komui’s office?” he asked.

Timcampy nodded and, unwinding its tail, flew into the air before flying down the path and Allen jogged after him. While the injuries he’d sustained during the fight in Martel still bothered him, they weren’t as bad as they had been three days earlier and Allen was thankful that his anti-akuma weapon seemed to have fixed itself. The last thing he wanted was Komui anywhere near it with that drill of his.

He reached Komui’s office just in time to hear a loud _crash_ and winced before pushing the door opened. He blinked when he saw that Komui was fast asleep at his desk, no surprise there, while the rest of the Science Division were working on paperwork. The crash had come from the one Allen recognized as Reever accidentally dropping a stack of books on the ground and another one tripping over them.

Allen moved to their side. “Are you okay?” he asked, holding out a hand to the shorter man that tripped.

“I’m fine, thank you,” the young man said and, taking Allen’s hand, pulled himself to his feet. He felt his face and looked relieved when he felt his glasses were still perched on the bridge of his nose.

“You’re welcome. Oh and I never got the chance to introduce myself earlier. I’m Allen Walker. It’s nice to meet you,” he said, releasing the young man’s hand and giving him a polite bow in greeting.

“Nice to meet you, Walker. I’m Johnny Gill of the Science Division. I’m also the one that made you your new uniform while you were away. I’ll bring it you whenever you want to see if it fits.”

“Thank you very much.”

“You want to speak with the Supervisor?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve got it,” Reever said and moved over to where Komui was fast asleep and leaned toward him. “Lenalee’s gonna get married.”

“ _No! Lenalee!_ ” Komui cried, jerking awake in an instant.

Allen sweatdropped.

“It’s really the only way to wake him up,” Reever said irritably and smacked Komui upside the head. “And you really need to get to work, Supervisor. Also, Allen Walker’s returned from his mission.”

Komui rubbed his head and turned to Allen. “Oh, Allen, welcome back,” he greeted him with a smile.

“Supervisor,” Allen said.

“So we’ll just make this quick so that you can go and rest and get your new uniform from Johnny. I just want a brief summary of the mission and then we can go down and take the Innocence cube to Hevlaska.”

Allen nodded and, removing a couple pieces of paper from the armchair across from Komui’s desk, sat down. He outlined everything that happened and produced the Innocence cube from within his coat.

Komui nodded. “And your Innocence changed?” he asked.

Allen nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“Parasitic Innocences usually changes depending on the emotions of its accomodator and those emotions influence it,” Komui said.

Allen nodded. He had figured that out as well.

“Keep an eye on it,” Komui said finally. “That’s really all you can do. Come. Let’s take that cube to Hevlaska and...”

Allen’s stomach chose that moment to remind him that it was still there.

Komui adjusted his glasses, an amused smirk on his lips. “...and then get you something to eat,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” Allen said, a faint flush on his cheeks.

“Oh and welcome back, Allen,” Komui added with a smile.

“Thank you, sir,” Allen said with a smile back at him.

**. . .**

Harry liked his new uniform. It fit him much better than the last one and made from the same durable material but it was lighter and allowed for greater motion. It also came with a holster for his wand attached to his forearm, which gave him easier access to his wand and also made it less likely that he would accidentally break it. The last thing he wanted to do was break his wand, especially since he doubted he would be able to replace it, not in the era that he’d found himself stuck in.

He walked into the cafeteria. It was late morning but he’d slept in a little, since he didn’t have another mission, but hunger dragged him from his bed. The cafeteria wasn’t that full but Harry did see a large stack of plates, half empty and the other half full of food, and smiled a little.

 _Looks like Allen’s back,_ he thought, wandering over to join Allen. “Welcome back, Allen,” he greeted the younger boy as he slid into a seat across from him. He noticed that Allen was dressed in the normal wear that he wore around the Black Order’s Headquarters.

“Thank you. When did you get back, Harry?” Allen asked after swallowing a bite of food.

“’Bout two days ago,” Harry said. “How’d your mission go?”

Allen swallowed another bite of food, his silver eyes thoughtful. “It went...well,” he said.

Harry raised an eyebrow, noticing the slight pause and figured that something important had happened during Allen’s mission. He decided that if Allen didn’t want to tell him then he wouldn’t push. He mused that he’d really gotten better at not being too nosy but then he figured that was primarily because the secrets that were being kept in the time he’d ended up in weren’t life threatening or dangerous like the ones he’d unraveled at Hogwarts.

“And how did your mission go, Harry?” Allen asked, finishing off the plate he was on and starting another one.

“The Innocence was in a teddy bear,” Harry said. He still hadn’t really come to terms with the randomness of that.

Allen blinked and chuckled. “The Innocence Kanda and I found was a doll,” he said.

“Wow. Innocence is really random when it comes to deciding what it will be,” Harry mused.

Allen chuckled. “Maybe. Well, in this case, it was,” he said, swallowing a bite of spaghetti and moving on to the curry on his plate.

“Did you just get back?” Harry asked.

Allen nodded.

“Where’s Malfoy incarnate?”

Allen raised an eyebrow at Harry’s choice of words, faint amusement in his eyes. “He was sent on another mission while we were still in Italy and I was told to come back here,” he said. Finishing the curry, he moved on to the lo mein.

A _crash_ sounded outside and Harry glanced toward the doors leading into the cafeteria. “What was that?” he wondered.

The door sprang open and Johnny darted into the room. “Um, you guys might want to get outta here,” he said.

“Why?” Allen asked, picking up one of the few mitarashi dangos hat he had left and biting into it.

“Supervisor Komui’s Komurin III has gone out of control,” Johnny said.

“Komurin... _III?_ What happened to one and two?” Allen asked.

“Kanda cut the first one in half because he stole his soba and the second got destroyed by Lenalee yesterday when it went berserk after drinking coffee,” Johnny said.

“I remember that. Didn’t know robots _could_ drink coffee,” Harry said. “And I did not appreciate nearly getting my hair chopped off because it deemed my hair was too much like a bird’s nest and needed to be fixed.”

Allen blinked and tilted his head to the side but he said nothing, a faint amused smile on his lips.

Another _crash_ sounded outside and Johnny nervously glanced over his shoulder. “It’s heading in this direction,” he said.

“What’s it doing this time?” Harry asked, standing up and running a hand through unruly black hair.

“It’s grabbing everyone it comes across and putting them in dresses.”

The door burst open and Reever darted into the cafeteria, wearing a puffy pink dress with lace around the bodice and long sleeves.

Harry took one look at Reever and burst out laughing.

Even Allen was having a hard time keeping his own laughter behind. It was probably only out of politeness that he didn’t start laughing.

“It’s not funny!” Reever groaned. “It’s almost here so unless you want to end up like me, you should get out.”

The finders that were the only ones in the cafeteria at the time didn’t need to be told twice and were already fleeing for the door.

“Why did Supervisor Komui build a robot that did this?” Allen asked, gesturing to Reever.

“It wasn’t meant to. It malfunctioned, though why the Supervisor even had this kind of command installed into that robot of his, I will never know,” Reever said irritably.

Another _crash_ sounded and a giant silver robot with a white beret on its head prowled straight through the doors, sending splinters of wood flying in all directions. It looked around and fixed its attention on Johnny, Harry, and Allen. “Targets acquired,” it stated and reached its metal hands forward and grabbed Johnny.

“Eep! Help!” Johnny cried, struggling to get out of the robot’s hands but it was too late and Johnny had already been placed inside the robot.

Harry exchanged a glance with Allen. “You got any ideas?”

The white-haired boy shook his head. “You?”

“...Run?” Harry suggested.

Allen didn’t need to be told twice and bolted.

Harry quickly bolted after him.

**. . .**

“Don’t harm my Komurin!”

“It’s not gonna stop if we don’t stop it, Supervisor!”

“My pride is shot because of this.”

“Your pride? At least your dress covers your legs! Mine doesn’t. I didn’t even know dresses _came_ this short.”

“No that’s because you ripped it because you struggled when my Komurin pulled you out. Put away that grenade launcher! I won’t let you destroy my Komurin!”

Lenalee sighed. _This is going to be a long day,_ she thought, her own orange colored dress a bit cumbersome and hard to move in. She spotted the Komurin III moving around rapidly a floor below and, looking down, she saw a flash of white.

 _Allen? He must have just got back from his mission,_ she thought, glad that one of her newest allies was back safely but she felt a bit guilty that he had to deal with her big brother’s insanity, and Komurin III, so soon after getting back.

**. . .**

“Is this thing ever gonna let up?” Harry exclaimed.

“I don’t think so. Keep running,” Allen shouted. The two of them were running side by side, Allen’s exhaustion from his journey and Harry’s exhaustion from still waking up allowed them to keep pace with each other. And they were able to keep ahead of the Komurin III, though that was mostly because it stopped whenever it saw someone, usually a finder, and focused on putting them in dresses. That kind of distraction was really the only reason why Allen and Harry were able to stay ahead of it.

The two of them skidded around a corner as the Komurin III thundered after them and darted down another flight of stairs, taking them two at a time and not even bothering on grabbing the railing. Allen was sure that if he fell then it would just mean getting down those stairs faster and might put some more distance between him and the robot.

“I didn’t even know robots existed in this time. I mean we’re in the 1800s for crying out loud,” Harry panted.

“Do they have these things where you come from?” Allen asked, jumping to the bottom of the stairs when he was still a few steps away and darting around the mezzanine and Harry followed suit.

“Not that I know of. This is pretty advanced even for _my_ time and that’s saying something,” Harry said.

Allen could readily agree since Harry’s time was a century into the future. “Is it still behind us?” he called as he rounded the corner only to jump back when the robot launched itself off the balcony above and crashed into the balcony in front of him.

“No,” Harry said. “It’s in front of us.”

“You know Master was right. You really are cheeky.”

“It’s a gift.”

The Komurin III charged toward them, reaching out its claws toward them but Harry’s wand was in his hand. “Dunno if this is gonna work but I might as well try,” he said and pointed his wand at the robot. “Maybe this will short circuit it. _Aguamenti!_ ” A burst of green water shot out of his wand and slammed into the Komurin III, drenching it. Almost immediately, sparks started flying as the robot short circuited and Harry and Allen darted backward as it toppled forward. It struck the ground with a _thud_ and lay still.

Allen and Harry bumped into someone and turned to find a tall older man standing behind them. He had on the Exorcist jacket over a blue shirt and his brown hair was slicked back, leaving a single strand of brown hair in front of his eyes.

“Oh, sorry, sir. I didn’t see you there,” Allen said quickly, stepping back and bowing apologetically.

“It’s fine,” the man said. “What in the world happened here?”

“Komui’s robot went crazy and started putting people in dresses,” Harry said as Allen straightened up, noticing a bewildered look on the elder man’s face.

“That would explain why almost everyone I have seen since I got back are wearing dresses,” he said and shook his head before looking at them. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you two here before.”

“Oh we just joined about a week or so ago,” Allen said and held out a hand. “I’m Allen Walker.”

“Harry Potter,” Harry said.

“Suman Dark. May I ask you something?” the man said, shaking each of their hands in turn.

“Sure.”

“How old are you?”

Allen and Harry looked at each other. “I’m fifteen and Harry’s sixteen, sir,” Allen said finally.

“I see.” He looked both disappointed and dismayed. “So young.”

“Hey, Suman! You’re back!” A shout sounded and the three turned to find Johnny, in an ankle-length forest green dress, jogging over to join them. Surprisingly enough, he didn’t trip over the dress despite how long it was.

Harry started laughing again.

Allen’s lips quirked but he was too polite to start laughing himself, despite how amusing the sight was.

Suman raised an eyebrow. “You’re wearing a dress,” he deadpanned.

Johnny blushed as he looked down. “Y...Yeah...Supervisor Komui said that we won’t be able to take them off for twenty-four hours because of some adhesive that’s keeping it stuck to our skin,” he said.

“Boy am I glad I was able to stop it before that happened to me,” Harry said in between laughs.

“Breathe, Harry,” Allen said, nudging the older boy.

“Anyway, glad you’re back. Wanna have a chess mach later?” Johnny asked.

“All right,” Suman said.

“Great. Oh and Walker, please come by the Science Department to pick up your new uniform. That way I can make any changes right away if you want,” Johnny said.

“Thank you, Mr. Gill,” Allen said politely.

“Ah, none of that. Just call me Johnny,” Johnny said and, waving at the three of them, jogged back the way he’d come, only to trip over the fabric and faceplant the floor. Suman walked after him and, after helping him up, the two walked away.

“I’m surprised he didn’t do that earlier,” Harry said in between snickers.

“Seriously, Harry, breathe. You’re going to pass out if you keep laughing,” Allen warned the messy black-haired boy.

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just...oh Merlin, why didn’t Fred and George think of this? This is golden!” Harry burst out laughing again.

Allen shook his head in faint amusement.

Timcampy flew over to join them at that moment and settled on Allen’s head, tail wrapping around his neck. “Where’ve you been, Tim?”

Tim flew off Allen’s head and, hovering in front of them, tilted its head back and projected a scene of a bunch of people in dresses tackling Komui in the Science Department.

Harry erupted into a fresh wave of laughter.

Allen just shook his head.

**. . .**

Hermione leaned against the counter, calling out a “have a good day” to the customer that had just left. A little over a year had gone by since Hermione had ended up in that town and she hadn’t made any headway in finding a way back to her own time or on finding Harry, Ron, and Sirius, or even determine if they’d ended up in the same time as her.

Ariadne had let Hermione stay with her and they worked together to keep Ariadne’s mum’s store running. Though Ariadne had grieved for weeks after her mum’s death, she had come to terms with it in the months since then. She did mention something about the Millennium Earl who’d supposedly come to her when her dad died had come to her again after her mum’s funeral but she’d said the same thing. And she still believed it to just be her imagination.

She hadn’t found anything on the Millennium Earl in all the research she’d been doing in the library, dividing her time between looking up information on him, information on those strange creature that had attacked that day, and information on the strange golden bracelet around her wrist. But something was stopping her from believing that the Earl was just a figment of Ariadne’s imagination and she wasn’t entirely sure what.

She did consider that the Earl was a wizard and that was why she wasn’t able to find information on him at a muggle public library but she didn’t know of any wizards that were able to bring back the dead, and not just create reanimated corpses.

As for those creatures, she hadn’t been able to find anything or anything on the strange bracelet and why it had appeared as suddenly as it had.

If both of those things were magical then she would have to find a magical library to find any information on them but whenever she looked at the bracelet, she felt a power wafting off it that made it feel _older_ than the magic she was used to.

It was possibly ancient magic but Hermione knew of no kinds of ancient magic that existed in her time but it was possible that it did exist in the century she was in now.

She sighed as she studied the bracelet. She hadn’t taken it off. She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t taken it off. Maybe it was because it felt right like it belonged to her, like it had chosen her just like her wand.

She’d already lost her wand—she hadn’t been able to find it when she’d gone back to where she’d arrived in this town—and so she didn’t have access to her magic because she didn’t know how to use wandless magic yet. But the bracelet did give her some access to some kind of magic she’s never seen before and that was when she’d first gotten that feeling that the bracelet’s power was older.

She still didn’t know how she’d created that ice wall or were able to throw those shards of ice back at that monstrous creature that was attacking her and Ariadne nine months ago. All she knew was that it had destroyed that creature, the creature that she still knew nothing about.

“...mione! Hermione! Hello, anyone in there? Hello?”

Hermione jolted out of her thoughts at a hand waving in front of her face and blinked. “Oh, sorry, what is it?” she asked. Getting distracted by attempting to find answers to the consistent flow of questions in her head was something that usually only happened when she was alone with her thoughts.

“You seem distracted. Go ahead and take a break. Go for a walk or something. Fresh air might be what you need,” Ariadne said. “I can handle things here.”

“Are you sure? It’s almost lunch time,” Hermione said.

“Yeah, I’m fine, go on,” Ariadne said and nudged Hermione away from the counter.

“Oh all right,” Hermione said with a faint smile. She stepped away from the counter and, after pulling on a thick jacket that hung on the jacket rack and a pair of gloves, headed outside. She wrapped her arms around her body in an attempt to ward off the chill and gazed around.

There were only a few people wandering around the snow-covered street going about their daily business. The damage done to the town during the attack nine months ago hadn’t been fixed completely but a lot of headway had been made.

Hermione weaved around the people, nodding her head in greeting to those who waved or called out greetings. Everyone had come to know and accept her into the little community since she’d arrived and she was thankful for it. She was afraid that she’d be alienated because of how she’d arrived in that town but they were rather accepting.

She frowned when she found that her feet had taken her to the cemetery. A small family of three were gathered around a grave, with the youngest of the three kneeling beside the grave, and she felt pity go through her. As the two older members of the group headed toward the entrance, leaving the younger behind, and Hermione recognized them.

“Oh. Eva, Amos,” she greeted them.

“Hermione, it’s been a while,” Eva greeted her with a sad smile, wiping the tears in her eyes away, distress glistening in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I was planning on telling you about what happened to Adonia but...”

“It’s okay. I’m so sorry for your loss. How’s Sampson?” Hermione asked. She had become friends with quite a few members of the community during the past year to the point that some asked her to call them by their first name.

“Not well. He was very close to his sister,” Amos admitted. “We’re giving him some time alone with her but maybe you can talk to him. He likes you.”

Hermione’s cheeks reddened, knowing that Sampson liked her as more than just a friend. She didn’t feel the same way but she was flattered. She still saw him as a friend and he did the same with her. “Okay.” she said, tucking her gloved hands into the pocket of her jacket. At the very least, she could give him her condolences.

She walked past the parents and headed into the frozen cemetery, walking over to join Sampson and kneeling down beside her, looking at the grave in front of her.

_Adonia Caras. April 5, 1880 – April 2, 1897._

“She would have turned seventeen today,” Sampson whispered, tears still in her eyes. “She had her seventeenth birthday all planned out. She was planning on spending it in Athens with us but...” He trailed off and tears slid down his cheeks.

Hermione placed a hand on his shoulder and turned to the tombstone. “I’m sure she’s happy that you’re here for her though,” she said. “She’d want you to be happy, Sampson. She wouldn’t want you to grieve for her passing.”

“I know. It’s just, it’s really hard,” Sampson whispered.

“I know. It’s never easy to lose someone you love,” Hermione said gently. “But she’s in a better place.”

“I...I hope so.”

“I’m sure that she is. C’mon. Why don’t we go get some ice cream and celebrate your sister’s life? You can tel me all about some of the things you two got into when you were younger. You never did finish telling me about what happened to you guys in Athens last year.” It was what her parents did when her grandmother had passed away after the funeral; they celebrated her life and talked about the good times to help ease the grief.

Sampson wiped his eyes and smiled at Hermione. “Okay,” he said and stood up, dusting himself off and following Hermione as she led the way out of the cemetery.

**. . .**

“Another one?” The Millennium Earl murmured, his far-too-large grin faltering slightly as he watched the bushy-haired girl guide the boy he’d been targeting away from the grave. He could feel the magic surrounding her, just as he’d felt the magic surrounding that boy back in Gaillac.

Yes, he’d always known that the boy was a wizard. He just hadn’t said anything until the boy had announced it to the whole world by casting the first spell.

But he wasn’t expecting another member of the Wizarding World to show up, and in a place that was likely the location of Innocence.

Just as the boy had appeared in Gaillac, which was also the location of Innocence.

Even tough the Millennium Earl hadn’t found the location of the Innocence in both of those towns, he knew that it was there. It just seemed to be _blocked_ by something and he wasn’t entirely sure what it was.

_Could the magic of the Wizarding World be blocking it?_

He knew about the sub-humans known as witches and wizards and the magic that they used was much younger than the Dark Matter and Innocence that the Noah and the Exorcists used. However, it was also mysterious in its own right. It harbored far too many secrets within its depths and the Millennium Earl knew none of these secrets.

A checkered door materialized behind him and the Earl turned to find the Ninth Disciple of Noah appearing, sitting on Lero the talking umbrella, her stripped-stocking-clad legs swinging back and forth. “Hey, Millennie! Find a new target?” Road Kamelot asked. She had spiky dark blue hair and pale skin, her eyes showed that she was much older than the twelve or thirteen years that she looked.

“Well, I did but he left. Guess I’ll just try again later~” The Millennium Earl said, eyes still locked on the bushy-haired girl.

Road followed his gaze and grinned. “Oh who’s that? Someone I can play with?” she asked eagerly as she hopped to stand on Lero.

“Get off, lero,” Lero complained.

“No, Road, you may not play with her, not yet anyway,” the Millennium Earl said. “She’s like that boy from Gaillac.”

“Really?” Road hopped up and down on the umbrella, completely ignoring Lero’s complaints. “She’s a wizard? Or would the correct term be witch? Do you think there’re more of ‘em? I haven’t played with a member of the Wizarding World before.”

“It’s possible. I find it odd that members of the Wizarding World are actually at places where I know Innocence is located. And it’s even odder that I haven’t been able to find the location of the Innocence, and neither has Tyki-pet or Sheril, though they’re still looking in Gaillac.”

Road hummed and then snapped her fingers. “I’ve got it! Maybe that witch, and the wizard in Gaillac, had something to do with it or their magic at least. We don’t know much about the Wizarding World’s magic only that it’s younger than ours. The community keeps to themselves so much that even we haven’t been able to infiltrate them.”

“You do have a point, Road,” the Millennium Earl said. “Hmm, if that’s true then we will need to keep an eye on this witch and that wizard from Gaillac. They may be hiding, whether knowingly or not, the Innocence in those towns. For now, let’s head back. I’ll leave some akuma here to keep an eye on things and send some to relieve Tyki-pet and Sheryl in Gaillac while I’m at it.”

“Okay! Can I get a new doll to play with?” Road asked, eyeing one of the humans that was walking just outside the cemetery with a sadistic smirk on her lips.

“Maybe later. I’ll get you some candy though.”

“Deal.”

**. . .**

Ron moved the knight forward to take Sirius’s queen. “Checkmate,” he said with a grin.

Sirius groaned. “That’s the third time you’ve beaten me today,” he complained with a pout. “Rematch!”

“Okay but wow, you’re even worse than Harry at chess,” Ron said, gathering his pieces together and resetting them on his side of the board.

Sirius huffed but gathered his pieces and started putting them into place.

They were still staying at Alvin’s place in the darkness-shrouded town of Gaillac. Even though Alvin had drifted into a depression upon finding out about the death of his son, he was still kind enough to let Ron and Sirius stay with them. On Sirius’s insistence, Ron didn’t tell Alvin about the fat guy, the Earl, that had been the reason Quinton had died.

Ron didn’t get just what happened six months ago. Neither he nor Sirius had ever heard of the Millennium Earl or of Akuma and even the research that Sirius, reluctantly, dug up on the matter hadn’t cleared things up at all. It was as if the information they were looking forward just didn’t exist but Ron knew that the Earl and akuma did exist because he’d seen them with his own two eyes.

It was like magic. He knew magic existed, knew witches and wizards existed, but the vast majority of the muggle population didn’t.

Sirius had suggested that it could be a magical thing in nature and that’s why Gaillac’s library didn’t have any information on it; Gaillac was obviously a muggle town, despite the phenomenon that still shrouded it.

Still, bringing someone back from the dead was wrong. There was no doubt about that. All Ron could think of that dealt with returning someone back from the dead were Inferi and Inferi weren’t, technically speaking, alive. They were simply reanimated corpses, like the muggle zombie that Hermione had mentioned to him.

Even after half a year, Ron still couldn’t get that voice out of his head, the voice that Quinton had recognized as his sister Simone’s speaking out of that metal mannequin of sorts. Quinton’s reaction had been what told Ron that Simone had, somehow, really been brought back, only to be used by the Earl to kill her own brother.

He may not have seen the murder but he’d definitely heard it.

It still haunted him.

The dead should be left alone. That was all there was to it.

 _How could anyone actually bring someone back from the dead like that?_ He thought, idly twirling the bishop chess piece between his fingers. He hadn’t even noticed that Sirius had already made his first move until he felt someone poke his forehead.

“Hey, Ron, it’s your move,” Sirius said.

“Ow.” Ron rubbed his forehead and put the bishop back down. He scanned the board and, once he spotted the pawn Sirius moved, moved one of his pawns as well.

“Galleon for your thoughts?” he said as Ron moved a pawn forward two spaces.

He sighed. “Just thinking ‘bout what happened six months ago,” he said.

“Yeah, that must’ve been pretty freaky.”

“Yeah. I mean, what the bloody hell is that Earl and those akuma things?”

“Wish I knew. We’d probably have to find a magical library or maybe go to Hogwarts or something,” Sirius said, moving his bishop a few spaces diagonally across the board to take Ron’s pawn. “Though I don’t think going to Hogwarts would be a good idea. We ain’t supposed to be in this time and I’m pretty sure if anyone could figure that out, it’d be the Ministry of Magic. According to what I paid attention to in History of Magic, which wasn’t a lot mind you, the Ministry was a lot more competent in the nineteenth century than they are now.”

“Well, that’s no good.”

“No, it’s not. By the way, do you still have that shield?”

Ron nodded, reaching down to where he’d rested that silver shield against his chair and held it up. “I don’t know why but I just feel like it belongs to me like, y’know, the way a wand feels when it chooses a wizard so I keep it with me,” he said.

“Odd. At least it’s not that big,” Sirius mused.

It was true, the shield wasn’t that big. The diamond-shaped silver shield was as long as Ron’s forearm and as wide as his head. But he knew, from experience, that it could grow in size and it could produce those odd green-and-black spears that could act like both legs and actual spears. It was weird.

“Still, I don’t get it at all,” Ron said, putting the shield back down and glancing back at the chessboard. He picked up his knight and moved it forward.

“I don’t either.” Sirius shrugged, picking up a pawn and moving it forward. “Guess we’re just two confused dudes caught in something none of us understand.”

“So it’s like Hogwarts all over again.” Ron moved a pawn forward.

“Pretty much.” Sirius took the pawn Ron just moved forward with his bishop and leaned back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. “I wonder how Remus and the others are doing.”

“Yeah. Mum was probably in hysterics and she probably thinks I’m dead. I mean...it’s been a year.”

“Yeah.” Sirius sighed, running a hand through his unruly black hair. “We’re in some deep shit though. Messing with time magic is one of the biggest no-nos in the Wizarding World.”

“It’s not like we meant to though,” Ron grumbled, using his knight to take Sirius’s pawn.

“Yeah, I know that, you know that, they don’t know that.” Sirius took Ron’s knight with his bishop and Ron retaliated by taking Sirius’s bishop with his queen.

“This sucks,” Ron grumbled as Sirius moved his knight forward. He moved his queen to take Sirius’s exposed rook. “Check.”

Sirius moved his king out of the way. “Yeah, it does,” he said.

Ron moved his queen to take out Sirius’s queen. “Check,” he said.

Sirius moved the queen out of the way. “Guess we’ll just deal with that when we get back to our own time,” he said.

“Yeah, I guess.” Ron moved his knight to take a pawn and successful pin Sirius’s king. “By the way, checkmate.”

“Drat!”

**. . .**

“So we’re basically stuck here for the time being?” Tyki Mikk said, leaning against the wall and glancing at his companion, hidden by the darkness of the town they were in. He was a tall, handsome man with wavy dark hair and a mole under his left eye with light skin and brown eyes. He was dressed formally, even though they couldn’t exactly be seen because of the darkness. They’d been there for the past couple of days attempting to track down the Innocence that they, just like the Earl, _knew_ was there. They haven’t been having any luck.

And Tyki was bored.

“Pretty much. I miss my darling Road!” Sheril Kamelot whined. Sheril looked a lot like Tyki, due to being his elder brother, but with his long hair tied back in a ponytail and a monocle over his eye. Normally, he wouldn’t be on these kinds of missions, due to his work as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Portugal. The only reason why there were two Noah in Gaillac was because of the appearance of magic; basically speaking, they were there looking for the Innocence as well as finding any and all information on the wizard who was in Gaillac.

Sheril simply said that he was due for a few days of vacation time anyway and welcomed the chance to get away, for a few days, from dealing with the political sphere of Portugal.

Tyki was positive that Sheril enjoyed dealing with the political sphere of Portugal and just wanted to get away from the advisers that were annoying him. He suspected Sheril was going to be getting some new advisers when he got back.

Tyki sighed and pulled out a deck of cards and began shuffling them. It wasn’t that he hated Sheril, he could never really hate a member of his family, but his brother had a daughter-complex as bad as Skinn’s sweet tooth, and that was saying something. “It’ll be a few hours. I’m heading to the gambling hall,” he said.

“Does this mean I’m stuck here with nothing to do?” Sheril asked.

“You can always go see if that wizard the Earl told us about has done anything interesting.”

“Can’t I just go with you, my beautiful brother?”

“No,” Tyki deadpanned.

“Oh c’mon! I just wanna spend time with you, dear brother.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Please, my sweet little brother?”

“No.”

Did Tyki forget to mention that Sheril had a slight brother-complex as well? Or, at the very least, he had a tendency of flirting with Tyki a lot.

Frankly, it was annoying.

“I will see you later. Don’t blow our cover while I’m gone,” Tyki said, tucking the cards into his pocket and striding out of the alley and toward the gambling hall.

“Is that anyway to talk to your elder brother?” Sheril called.

Tyki ignored him.

**. . .**

_Next Time: The Town of Eternal Winter_

**. . .**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is the next chapter. I hope that you guys like it and reviews and kudos are much appreciated.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think of the first chapter and if you would like to see more. I already have the first eleven chapters typed up (and the remaining chapters are kinda planned out).
> 
> Reviews and kudos and whatever else you want to give me are much appreciated!


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